


Magic Works

by ANebulaDarkly



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, And so do I, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, I Don't Even Know, I don't know how this happened, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Marichat, My First Work in This Fandom, Panic Attacks, Plagg Loves Cheese, Supportive Tikki, Teenage Angstland, Teenage Dorks, True Love, Valentine's Day, not too detailed but they are there, only compliant to season 1, tikki is always right, yes i stole this title from a harry potter song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-27 03:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15677427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANebulaDarkly/pseuds/ANebulaDarkly
Summary: Nearly a year after the original incident, Marinette has an epiphany about last year's Valentine's Day chaos. Yes, the only thing that conquers hate is love.But that kind of magic only works if it's *true* love.





	1. friday 10 feburary

It should have occurred to Tikki’s charge long before this moment. It should have been more than an inkling as Marinette passed her parents on her run to school as they began to unpack the Valentine’s Day themed supplies. It should have knocked her over during lunch while Alya was flipping through her collection of Ladybug pictures and trying to decide how to update the LadyBlog for the holiday. It should have probably been a nudging at some point after school when Alya quietly asked Marinette if she had any holiday themed projects in mind. It most certainly should not have finally hit her charge at one o’clock in the morning after a solo patrol as she laid in bed just on the edge of sleep. Marinette bolted upright with a gasp. The motion woke the already slumbering kwami, and Tikki immediately flew to the girl’s shoulder. 

“Marinette, are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?”

Her voice was full of concern, but Marinette did not seem capable of speaking. Her breathing shifted erratically as she sat still and unmoving. Recognizing the signs, Tikki immediately tapped into her connection with the girl and funneled a bit of her own healing magic into her. It started as a small warmth from the point of contact with the earrings that bound them, but soon the pink tinged magic flooded over the teen. Tikki watched Marinette take her first easy breathe after a few moments. Realizing, that she’d given enough, Tikki ended the surge of healing magic. Calm, Marinette reached out and gently lifted the kwami to touch their foreheads. She knew the kwami had magic enough to transform her, but a little dose had been enough to calm her momentary panic.

“Thank you, Tikki.”

“Ah, Marinette, it’s alright. I was worried. What happened?” Tikki glanced over at the alarm clock. “We haven’t been in bed long enough for you to really have a nightmare yet, have we?”

“No…” Marinette admitted as she looked away from the kwami in her hands.

“Then what is it that has you so scared?”

Marinette swallowed. Tikki sat back in Marinette’s hands.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you’re not ready, Marinette.”

“I…I should probably talk about it a little because it’s probably the only way I’m going to be able to sleep.”

Setting her hands upon her knees, Marinette turned her eyes back to the kwami.

“Alright. Here it goes. You know I like Adrien right?”

“Of course, Marinette. Were you worried about him? There wasn’t an attack tonight. He’s safe at home.”

Marinette shook her head and slowly forced out the words.

“No. I wasn’t worried about him. I’m worried about me. Do you remember last year? When Chat and I fought Dark Cupid? And how he took that arrow for me?”

“Yes…” the kwami replied, letting the word go, waiting for Marinette to fill in the rest of the story.

“Tikki, I kissed him, and it brought him back. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, and…”

Tikki quickly jumped to reassure her charge. She probably just felt a little guilty for forcing herself on him. Marinette overthought things like that. 

“You did what you had to do, Marinette. It worked. You saved Chat, and he helped you defeat Dark Cupid.”

“That’s the problem I’m having with it. It _worked_ , Tikki. Just like in the fairy tales, but Tikki, in fairy tales, it only works….it only works if it’s, if it’s…” Marinette’s voice dropped to barely a whisper, “ _true love_.”

The kwami blinked once, twice, but then looked down at her hands. She had not expected this line of questions so late at night nearly a year after the original incident. It should have come soon after that battle or maybe later this week on the anniversary of the fight, not as a drifting thought that kept Marinette from her well earned rest. The kwami took a moment before giving a very neutral answer.

“Fighting an akuma doesn’t have to follow all the rules of a fairy tale, Marinette,” Tikki pointed out.

“But aren’t akumas are made by Hawkmoth’s magic?” Marinette pressed. “I become Ladybug through magic. Chat is Chat Noir because of magic. We’re all bound by magic. My magic has rules just like Chat’s and Hawkmoth’s. There are always rules to magic, right?”

“Yes, Marinette, there are lots of rules to magic. Like the fact that when you use Lucky Charm you have only five minutes before I get too weak to keep up the transformation.”

The kwami dodged the unspoken question yet again.

“Exactly. And a kiss, like that, Tikki…I…he’s my partner, he’s my…. _Chat_ …but he’s not…Adrien….”

Marinette’s words failed her then. She couldn’t ask it. Instead tears made their way silently down her face. The kwami nearly began to cry herself watching her charge absorb the full impact of what her knowledge of magic might mean.

“Marinette, please don’t cry,” the kwami begged.

Marinette shut her eyes and fought back a sob.

“I can’t stop. Tikki. It was…it was a _true_ love’s kiss, wasn’t it?”

“Oh Marinette…” Tikki sighed, looking away as well.

Setting her jaw, Marinette opened her eyes to look to stare at her guide though her tears and waited. The kwami held out a bit before relenting. Marinette deserved to know the truth if her thoughts were enough to lead her there. Her shoulders sagging in defeat, Tikki looked up at the girl before giving her a direct answer. 

“Yes, Marinette, it was.”

Marinette’s face fell.

“Thank you…for telling me,” Marinette managed before her tears claimed her once more.

Marinette was clearly overwhelmed, and Tikki knew there was little she could say to calm down her charge. Marinette’s heart longed for someone, but the rules that bound both kwami and her Ladybug had chosen something else for the girl. It was a kind of heartbreak that Tikki had rarely ever been witness to. The girl curled up on her side, the kwami flying up out of Marinette’s hands as she turned over. Her charge trembled as she contained her voice with a hand over her mouth. Even now, Marinette could not let her emotions over take her fully without worrying that her parents might discover a scene they would not understand. Tikki settled in against the girl’s head and pat it as best she could. Matters of a human heart, especially young hearts, were hard to navigate. Tonight, she would let Marinette cry out her feelings and find her way into sleep. Tomorrow, when they had more time, Marinette might be ready to talk more about it, maybe not accept the limits of their bindings to the laws of magic, but at least to confront it head on, as she always did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this idea happened to me, much like it happened to Marinette. I sat upright in bed just as I was trying to fall asleep, and was like “wait, in fairy tales it’s true love. What if….?” And I was like I can totally write this in the four days before V-day. 
> 
> And then it became this monster story and I am not really sure how any of this happened. Sorry it’s so late? 
> 
> Just know it's all finished, and the rest should be up before the week is out.
> 
> enjoy


	2. saturday 11 february

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a super short chapter, but since the fic is already completed I'm going to post chapter 3 right after this!

Brilliant light streamed in through the windows, shinning on a tower of fabric Marinette had reorganized the day before. The diligently chalked and cut pieces of her current project that she had pinned together for the first round of stitches last night lay in a neat stack next to the sewing machine she had left out in order to jump right into working as soon as she was awake for the day. Friday nights were for homework. Akuma attacks, patrols, and the occasional sleep over being the only exceptions. Having her homework done cleared the path for her charge to have time for designing and sewing projects on Saturdays. Ten a.m. had come and gone and still Marinette, though awake, remained in bed, listless and silent. Occasionally her phone would sound at a new text or notification, but Marinette looked at none of them. 

Tikki had never seen Marinette like this before. She had seen the girl over excited and anxious about things, worrying about the worst possible sorts of outcomes for anything that might happen. She had watched her fumble her way into accepting the mantle of Ladybug, had watched her fawn over her crush, had watched her support everyone in her class, but she’d never seen the girl so despondent before.

Her mother checked in on her at eleven, and Marinette mumbled a few words about not feeling well and no appetite for lunch. Her mother returned long enough to set out a plate of bread and a glass of water and to gently pet her daughter on the head. Marinette sighed a little at the gesture, but ultimately remained in bed. Tikki munched on a cookie and ignored the way the light glinted off the silver straight pins that held the rough edges of fabric together, still in pieces and not yet whole.


	3. sunday 12 february

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug has to face the music, er, puns, eventually. A chat with Chat and more angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *HEADS UP*  
> 
> 
> I'm double posting today, so if you haven't read Chapter 2 yet, please read it. It's small and short and angsty. Done that? Great! Let's dive into the chaos, kids.

Sunday came with little change in Marinette. Sabine had checked her daughter for fever, but in finding none, did not suggest medicine and instead let the girl sleep. Marinette did not catch the sad look on her mother’s face before she pulled the hatch to the girl’s room shut, but Tikki did. In fact, Tikki was certain the same look was on her face as well. And Marinette, stubborn as she ever was, refused to speak or eat or leave her bed. She still wore the clothes she had put on to go to bed Friday night. Marinette was not herself right now, and as much as Tikki wanted to give the girl time to herself, to be a teenage girl, Paris still needed Ladybug, broken heart or no. And so while Marinette refused to look at her phone, Tikki had taken up residence near it to keep an eye out for any akuma attacks. None came, but Sunday night was joint patrol. Her charge couldn’t avoid her responsibilities forever.

* * *

Marinette didn’t ignore her duty. She was a better person than that. The minute Tikki pointed out the time, Marinette did not hesitate to transform and disappear out of the trapdoor that lead to her balcony. She flew across Paris as fast as her yo-yo would allow her to the usual meeting spot. She flipped onto the scene to find Chat had beat her there by barely a few moments. He pulled up close to her, leaning on his staff.

“Good evening, my lady. It’s always a purr-leasure to see you.”

Marinette shrugged off his comment and barreled into her own.

“Which half do you want to take tonight?”

“I only get half? My Lady, I will settle for nothing less than your whole heart,” Chat replied.

Marinette looked down and away but did not lightly jest right back or call him out on his flirting. Instead, she let out a slow breath and fought to keep upright as her head spun. Maybe eating nothing all day followed by intense acrobatics, even with the aid of magic, may not have been her best idea. Chat immediately noticed the shift and slid into place beside her, setting a hand gently on her shoulder to steady her. He’d known exactly what she had needed without having to ask. He’d seen it. He paid such careful attention and slipped in to fill the space she left. How had she never noticed that before? Had her feelings for Adrien made her blind to Chat’s awareness of her?

“My lady, are you sick?” he asked, concern etched in his voice.

“I’m a kind of sick,” she whispered.

His hearing must have been enough to catch it, because he instantly brushed away her bangs and set his forehead against her own. After a moment he pulled back, same furrowed brow and frown reminding her of his worry.

“You don’t have a fever, but you don’t seem really all here. Are you sure you’re okay to patrol tonight?”

She set her hand over his and summoned what little energy she had left. Ladybug gave him a small grin.

“I can patrol for a few hours, kitty.”

She had tried for a light hearted tone, but she was certain by the continued concern on his face she had missed her mark.

“If you want to, I won’t stop you, but if you start to feel worse, please go home. I can take care of the city for tonight while our savior rests.”

“That’s sweet of you, Chat. I’ll do my best to live up to the city’s expectations.”

She patted the hand still beneath hers before she reached for her yo-yo.

* * *

They had not run as detailed a patrol as they usually would have. Or at least, Ladybug did not. Chat seemed to have been working double the pace to check every nook and cranny that would have been hers before she could get to them. As a result they ended their patrol far sooner than usual, sitting up on a beam of the Eiffel Tower, watching over the gleaming lights of the city. She kicked her legs back and forth, let herself simply be in the moment, and not think about what Tikki had said. She could feel Tikki’s worry rising in the back of her mind, merged as they currently were with the transformation, but set it aside as best she could. At this height, even the sounds of the city bustle were dulled by the wind, and the two superheroes sat in a companionable silence a while. Chat, who was almost always bursting with a pun, allowed her the quiet. He sat to her left, his own legs swinging in the open air. It was nice that he knew enough to respect the silence as long as she kept it. Paris glittered before them. She could barely make out her favorite sketching spot from here and once again her heart swelled with love and pride in her home. 

“It really is nice tonight. I like it when the city is this peaceful,” she finally broke.

“A quiet night watching the city with you is always the cat’s meow.”

“Chaaat,” she scolded softly at the pun.

It was still too much effort to form words, but apparently her few words were enough to encourage him to let loose his own. She should have known better than to believe that he could stay quiet an entire night.

“My lady, I know you’re not sick. Will you tell me what’s really wrong?”

“Curiosity killed the cat you know,” she quipped.

“And satisfaction brought him back,” Chat immediately replied, his tone lighter now that she’d made reference to his cat-ness. “You wouldn’t leave me dead, now would you, Ladybug?”

She blinked. She knew well enough the answer to that without telling him. Instead, she looked down at the city and answered his original question.

“I can’t tell you, Chat.”

“Why not?”

She took a moment to try and decide the best way to phrase it.

“Just… just something …happened…in my civilian life. And to be honest, it’s…it’s been a bit more than I can take.”

She felt a bit better having allowed herself that much of a confession. He quickly reached for her left shoulder again, worry causing him to react.

“Is everything okay? Are you okay?”

She looked at him, at his wide eyed fear, at his belt tail whipping side to side behind him. Her mouth tried to form the lie, to maintain their distance, to make him let it go, but he’d been so understanding tonight, and he looked so very afraid. For her. Had it been him to say something like that to her about something overwhelming him in his civilian life, she wouldn’t just let it go either, secret identities be damned. What if something really terrible had happened in his personal life? Wouldn’t she press for details enough to offer him comfort too?

“Things…things aren’t… I’m not… I’m not okay.”

There. She’d said it. Kwami, she’d been stuttering almost as bad tonight as she did in front of Adrien. She hoped he’d overlook it, just tie it to her being lost in her own thoughts. His fake cat ears were down and his usually restless tail stood still and low at her words. It took him a moment, but he slowly opened his arms wider and leaned into her. He gave her plenty of time to react, to shove him away, to protest his embrace. She found herself a little surprised that she didn’t object. Rather, she let herself accept the reassurance he offered. Her own arms curled under his and held him as well. Her forehead was tucked into the joint of his right shoulder and neck, next to his bell. The metal jingled ever so lightly as she settled her head into place. His clawed hand carefully cradled the back of her head.

“I know I can’t know the details, LB. But whatever it is, you’re going to get through it. You’re the strongest, bravest person I know. I know it’ll probably hurt for a while, whatever it is. If it’s got you looking like this, it’s a feeling that won’t go away soon because it would take more than something minor to get you down. And I’m not going to tell you it’ll all be okay because there are some things that happen in life…”

His voice faded a moment, as if he were lost in a memory of his own.

“There are some things that will just never be okay. But you learn to live with them, and they can make you bitter or they can make you kinder, stronger. And more than anything, my lady, I believe in you and your kindness and your strength." 

She swallowed back the hitch in her breathing. As comforting as his words were, they were just another reminder of what she had not wanted to consider. Chat said every right word, took every right action, let her have her space or gave her comfort when she needed it, hadn’t been insufferable with his puns or flirting as he usually was. What if every time they fought together he was like this? Just as calm and considerate and collected and gentle…like Adrien? 

The reality of her situation fell on her once again. Her heart was crying out for someone that she could not have, as magic tried to bind her to a heart she had not asked for, even a heart that could be as kind as Chat had revealed his be tonight. She slowly disentangled herself from his embrace. She shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t abuse Chat’s willingness to comfort her over the feelings she had for someone else. Shouldn’t keep comparing him to someone else. That wasn’t fair to him. She swallowed hard, pulled away completely, and sat without looking at him. She couldn’t bare to see whatever look he might be giving her, and she could not find it in herself to tell him why. Not yet. All of this was far too much, far too fast.

“Ladybug?”

She focused on reining in her feelings.

“It’s okay, Chat. I’ll be strong for Paris. The citizens need their hero,” she managed.

“But what do you need?”

His words had been too quick for him to consider them. She looked to him, her own eyes wide at the way he gazed at her, as though her every wish were only a command away, like he’d bring her the sun and stars and moon if she only asked.

“I….”

She turned away, attempting to fight back her tears. She tensed her jaw and focused on slowing her breathing, her whole being stiff and still. She was a professional. She was Ladybug. She was a superhero _not_ some forlorn teenage girl. Marinette shouldn’t let her feelings wander where they were not wanted. Not while she wore this mask. Her eyes darted up the stars she could not see for all the light of the city. 

“Hey, I’m sorry if I overstepped. But, more than anything, I just want you to know,” he wrapped his arm over her shoulder once more as he spoke, “you’re not alone.” 

And those were the words that broke her hold on the line she’d been maintaining between responsible Ladybug and the emotion wreck Marinette. Had she ever really seen how kind he could be? It would be so much simpler if…but she couldn’t imagine a world without either Chat or Adrien and both, she was coming to realize, had a unique place in her wayward heart. With a ragged gasp, she threw out what few words she could, while she could still contain herself. She refused to let him see her so undone. 

“I can’t. I’m sorry, Chat. I’ve got to go.”

And in a whirring of string, she slipped away into the city.

* * *

She did not look back, just zipped as fast as she could to her familiar rooftop, through the hatch and onto her bed before letting her transformation slide off her skin. She drew her knees up tight and pressed her face into them, her tears free flowing. Why did Chat Noir have to be so understanding? If he’d been his usual self, maybe she could have kept up the front, kept pretending she was Ladybug and that Ladybug was fine. 

A tiny hand patted the top of her foot. Marinette sniffed and looked up. Her kwami sat on the bed, a cookie uneaten beside her.

“Marinette, you’re taking this really hard. Chat was only trying to help you tonight.”

“That’s the problem, Tikki. He was so nice, the way Adrien is nice, and it was too confusing. My heart still wants Adrien. And I know that Chat’s a flirt, and I can’t take advantage of that. I like Chat a lot, Tikki. He’s the best super hero partner I could have ever asked for, but my _true_ love?I can’t love him, Tikki, not when I love Adrien. It would be wrong to love two people at once. Ugh. Why does love have to be so…so...”

She pulled her pillow over her face and let out a mournful wail of her built up emotions. 

When Marinette finally set the pillow aside, though her eyes were still red and her sight was still blurry, she had settled a little. Tikki sat slowly nibbling at her cookie over a napkin. Between bites, she spoke.

“Marinette, there are all kinds of love. There’s more than just romantic love. There is the love you feel for your parents, for your friends, and for Paris as well. Are any those any less important just because they are different? Are they any less _true_ loves because they are not _romantic_ loves?”

The pillow still hugged to her chest, Marinette listened to her guide’s wisdom before shaking her head at the Kwami’s questions. Of course they were just as true and as important.

“The kind of love you have for Chat Noir, for your partner, isn't a kind of love most people ever get to know. Your trust in him is absolute, it has to be for you to fight together, and trust is the building material of love. It may not be romantic love, like what you feel for Adrian, but Marinette, there are things you need to ask yourself. Isn’t having Chat as a true love, if it were a different kind of love, okay? And, on the other hand, if it is romantic love, would loving Chat in a romantic way be so awful?”

Marinette sighed.

“It’s not that I don’t think I could ever learn to love Chat romantically, I just never realized it could be a real possibility until tonight. And it’s not that I don’t truly love Chat as my partner. It’s okay if I love him like that. I just, trying to even think of loving Chat romantically feels wrong when I’m not at all ready to give up Adrien and submit to the rules of magic just because the rules say that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“Magic has rules, but even _I_ don’t know all the ends of them, and I have been around a very, very long time. Magic is a tricky thing, and it works itself out in ways that most do not expect. I know that this is a lot to take in, but for now, Marinette, maybe try not to let it worry you. You’ve got Luck on your side. Things will make sense, eventually.”

Marinette gave Tikki a small smile.

“Thanks, Tikki.”

“You’re welcome, Marinette.”

“And for the record, Tikki, I love more than just my parents and my friends and Paris and Chat Noir and Adrien.”

Tikki tilted her head to the side before Marinette set aside her pillow, scooped Tikki up, and nuzzled her against her face.

“I love you, too.”

“Aww, Marinette. I love you as well.”

Marinette set Tikki back down with her cookies before sliding off the bed and descending her loft. She began to rummage around her desk.

“Shouldn’t you go to sleep soon, Marinette? You have school in the morning.”  


“I can’t, Tikki. I’m too restless. I think I just need to write this all out, if only to get it out of my head.”

Marinette pulled out her key to unlock the box she kept her diary hidden in. Sprawling onto her stomach on the floor, Marinette tapped her pen against her mouth and wondered where to begin to get out everything down in ink. Her hand soon penned out the basics of what she knew about the situation. That she was head over heels for Adrien. That Chat Noir fit the bill of a true love that magic required. That there were different types of love, and all of them might be valid true loves as well. Maybe Adrien could still be a true love for her as well?

And then, just to prove to herself once and for all that her heart should still feel something for Adrien, she began to make a pro and con list for dating each boy. It was silly, sure, but maybe, maybe it would be enough to convince herself that maybe the magic was wrong, or right, but just in a different way and that being with Adrien would still be okay. 

On the plus side of dating Chat, she could speak to him in full sentences instead of the incoherent babble she could barely manage around Adrien. On the plus side of dating Adrien, it was _Adrien_. On the down side of dating Chat, there were all the puns. On the down side of dating Adrien, there was the fact she would never be able to walk without tripping all over herself ever again. With Chat, they had the long nights to talk over the city. But with Adrien he was kind and sweet and caring about everyone, even Chloe! But, Chat, had shown he could be like that too. She shook her head to clear the thought. On the down side of dating Chat, she didn’t even know his real name. Or his birthday. Or what his family was like. Or what he wanted to be when he grew up. There. See? She shouldn’t date him. She only knew him as his superhero self. She couldn’t have a real relationship with him based solely on just his hero self, right? 

But Chat could know _her_ hero self. Adrien…Adrien would never be able to know that she was Ladybug.

Her pen fell from her hand and rolled away. She pushed herself from off her stomach and sat up properly, her mind racing with the implications. If they were to date, how would she explain why she ran off every time there was an akuma? How would she cover up her patrols? How would she explain away her lack of sleep? How could she keep Tikki hidden when she would want to spend every waking moment with Adrien? How would she ever be able to keep all her cover stories together? How could she form a relationship with someone when she would always have to be lying about half of who she was? If telling the truth earned trust and trust was the building block of love, how could Adrien learn to love a untrustworthy liar? 

She looked up at her walls and spotted Adrien’s smiling face looking back at her. If her identity were ever discovered, how would she be able to keep him safe? 

She couldn’t. He could fence and speak Mandarin and play the piano, but none of that would save him if Hawkmoth went after him to get to her. She stood slowly and walked across her room to look at the photograph she’d pinned there. How could she knowingly put him into the danger that dating her might bring him? People don’t bring danger to the people they cared about. She lifted her hand, her fingers skimming across his face. She cared about him so much. 

If she loved him, then she needed to let him…. 

She held her breath and took down his picture.

And the next, and the next, and the next and the one after that too. She didn’t look back, didn’t let herself think about what she was doing, just kept going. Ignoring the worried looks her kwami shot her, she unpinned and peeled tape until every single picture of him that she had ever placed on her walls lay in a small pile on her desk. She gathered up the last framed picture of him, set it atop of her pile, and moved the entire collection into a drawer. Without a look back, she ascended the loft and crawled into bed. She shut off the light and lay there unmoving, her arms stiffly straight out beside her, her hands in tight fists. She refused to think about what she had done and carefully kept her mind blank. She laid there in silence for a very long time.


	4. monday 13 february

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today, a change of perspective as we get to see what Adrien thinks of the shift in Marinette. Mari gets a visit from a well meaning superhero, and Chat gets more than he bargained for.
> 
> Fluff! Angst! Heartfelt conversations! Anxiety! Nino! It's all here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god you guys. i'm floored by all these comments and kudos. i didn't expect this much attention, so i've been flailing in a corner a lot because i am so not good with attention, and wow, like you all are so sweet. i'm so happy so many people are liking it! also i planned this out before i watched season 2, so it's only compliant with season 1. ooops. gonna go back and add that tag. hope you enjoy this extra long chapter!

Marinette had not managed much sleep, constantly slipping in and out of wakefulness the entire night. The last time she roused, the sun was already over the horizon, so she firmly kept her thoughts silent, slipped out of bed, and got ready for school. Her mother nearly dropped the glass she had been holding when Marinette appeared far earlier than usual downstairs. Her father almost grabbed a hot tray without gloves when he saw Marinette walk out the door with so much time to spare. Alya’s jaw dropped when she spotted Marinette already at her desk. 

“Girl, are you sure you’re not still sick?” Alya asked as she slid in next to Marinette. 

Marinette lightly laughed off her comment. 

“If I can’t sleep, may as well just come here and get the day over with, right?”

Alya shrugged and began to unload her bag. A motion caught Marinette’s attention. Glancing up, she watched as Adrien walked into the room. Her breath caught as the morning sunlight made his hair gleam like gold. Her eyes dropped to his face, and there she found a story that made her heart clench. Though he kept on his signature soft smile, his eyes were heavy, like he had not had much sleep either. His shoulders were sagging as well. Nino walked in just behind him.

“Dude, your dad really needs to stop scheduling late photo shoots on school nights.”

Adrien scratched the back of his neck.

“There’s more to the shoot than just my dad. I can’t really help when they happen or when everyone can work it into their schedule,” Adrien explained as he turned to walk up the middle aisle to his seat. As he stepped up, his eyes caught with Marinette’s. This was usually the moment she would look away and blush, but if she was going to do this, if she was going to protect him, she wanted something to hold on to. So summoning every last ounce of bravery that she normally reserved for Ladybug alone, she kept her eyes locked with his and let herself attempt to sear the greenness of them into her mind forever. Magic may have fated her for someone else, but before she resigned herself to that, she wanted to burn his face into her memory if that would be all she had. He smiled at her, and she felt her heart lurch.

“Good morning, Marinette,” he greeted.

“Good morning, Adrien,” she replied. “How are you today?”

Alya’s phone fell from her hand and onto the desk with a loud thunk. Nino’s head snapped over to them. It almost seemed as if the whole world around them had stilled simply to watch them. Marinette ignored her friends reactions to her steady, though tired, voice.

“I would be doing better with more sleep, but at least I’ve got the homework done, so that’s something right?” Adrien replied as he took his seat, his body tilting to keep his face toward her. “And I guess I can always take a cat nap during lunch.”

“A nap wouldn’t hurt, but you should try to take better care of yourself,” she said, trying to keep her concern light and easy.

Adrien tiled his head at her words, as though she were a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. He kept his confusion even as he replied to her.

“I’ll do my best, Marinette.”

She gave him a half hearted smile before the teacher walked into the room, drawing all their attention. Alya leaned over and whispered to her. 

“Are you sure you’re feeling 100%? You _were_ sick all weekend. Are you sure that you aren’t feverish?”

“I’m fine,” Marinette whispered back.

She breathed and spoke it once more to herself.

“I’m fine.”

As the teacher called roll, Marinette kept her eyes firmly shut, letting herself sink into the green she found in the darkness behind her lids.

* * *

The last bell rung, and Adrien stood thankful that he could finally go home and take a proper nap. He’d spent his usual sleeping hours tossing and turning, worrying over what Ladybug had told him last night. Every time he shut his eyes, he could only see how small she looked as she sat there on the tower, the shimmer of tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. Plagg had snored easily beside him, but Adrien only heard the broken sound of Ladybug’s voice as she left him before she could cry over and over and over. He couldn’t sleep thinking about what had happened that had brought his Lady so low. He had wanted to chase after her so badly, to hug her once more, but knew he should let her go, let her protect herself and her secrets in her own way. If she wasn’t ready to talk about it, he wouldn’t force her. But he was determined to be there for her when she was.

“Dude, did you even hear me?” Nino asked.

“Uh, sorry, what?” Adrien asked, snapping back to reality as he shouldered his pack.

“I asked if you bought Ladybug anything for tomorrow,” Nino repeated as they began to work their way out of the classroom.

Adrien’s cheeks suddenly felt too warm.

“Uh, why, uh, would you think, why would I, uh, get anything for her? For tomorrow?”

Adrien silently beat himself up. Being worried about her didn’t seem to make much of a difference when it came to his crush on her.

“Oh, you know, I’ve only seen you both together just once, Adrien. But you and Ladybug were both blushing and stuttering as bad as—”

Nino cut off as Adrien fell forward and nearly knocked him over. Adrien glanced to his side to see that Marinette had stumbled into him while she had been trying to walk around them. Her head swayed side to side, as though she wasn’t quiet sure what was going on. Sure, she was a bit of a klutz, but she was never this bad, was she? And usually she would have stuttered her apology right away the moment she’d realized she’d caused a domino effect of having knocked Adrien over nearly into Nino. Adrien set a hand on her shoulder and took her in her pale face and dazed expression.

“Marinette, are you sick?”

“I’m a kind of sick,” she replied without thinking, so quiet he almost missed it.

He blinked at her. She shook her head and seemed to come back to herself. Standing to her full height she spoke.

“I’m sorry I tripped into you,” she said calmly.

He blinked again. It was an apology, but it wasn’t the stuttering one he had expected.

“I know you told me to take care of myself this morning, but maybe you should follow your advice, too, if you’re sick.”

Rather than immediately looking away and quietly agreeing as she normally would, Marinette kept her eyes on him and flashed him a brilliant, but forced grin.

“Don’t worry about me, Adrien. I’m stronger than you think.”

She gave him a winning wink before turning away.

“See ya around,” she told him in a jovial tone before she raced out the door.

Adrien stood there, speechless, his jaw hanging open. He thought back to this morning and the way she had not looked away then either, though he’d been too sleep deprived and worried about Ladybug to think too much about it until now. What was happening? His Lady was having a breakdown, and now Marinette had suddenly gained a burst of confidence on par with his crush? Nino slid beside him and threw his arm around Adrien’s shoulders.

“I was gonna say like Marinette does, but, I guess, that’s not really accurate anymore, is it?”

Adrien turned to him. Nino would know. Nino would have answers. Adrien clawed for a way to make the past 24 hours make sense.

“What just happened, Nino? I’ve never seen Marinette so….” Adrien fumbled around and motioned his arms in the direction she had gone, "like that before.”

Nino blinked for a minute and turned to look at the doorway Marinette had disappeared through. Adrien watched as Nino also seemed confused at her actions as well before his face went wide with realization. He sucked in a breath before slowly turning to look at Adrien. With a sad sigh, Nino pat his best friend’s shoulder, keeping his eyes locked on him. The expression reminded Adrien of the face his father wore right before he told him about his mother. Icy cold fear crept into his heart. His expression startled Nino, before the other boy sadly voiced his own thoughts.

“Just because you’ve never seen Marinette like that doesn’t mean she isn’t like that. Something tells me you’ll be seeing her like that more often from now on.”

Adrien looked once again at the doorway. Why shouldn’t Marinette be like that? To be honest, even as startling as it was, it had been nice to see her finally be so confident in front on him, to talk with him like a friend, to be able to meet his eyes.

“Shouldn’t that be a good thing?” Adrien countered.

“Depends on you, I guess,” Nino answered vaguely, his shoulders slumping. “But look, man, I gotta go see Alya about a thing.”

Adrien only lifted an eye brow. Yeah. ‘A thing’. Like he didn’t know that the aspiring DJ had 'a thing’ for Alya. Adrien decided to forego teasing him about it. His heart just wasn’t in it today.

“Sure. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, dude. Yeah,” Nino said with a nod before racing after the others.

Adrien stood alone in the empty classroom and let his mask fall. If Marinette having confidence was such a good thing, why did it feel Nino spoke as though Adrien had just lost something?

* * *

Marinette set down her pack beside her bedroom door and slid into her desk chair. She had managed to make it through the day without crying. Alya had booked it the moment class had ended to make it home in time to babysit her sisters, and Marinette had simply waved her off. She was too tired to try and keep up with her best friend today. Running into Adrien had almost broken her resolve to let him go, but she had wrapped her Ladybug persona tightly around her like a blanket and had managed to talk to him as well as make it all the way home without shedding a single tear. She only now realized how weird it was that in the past weekend she’d become more insecure Marinette in front of Chat and more confident Ladybug in front of Adrien. She groaned and shifted her mouse to wake her computer. A small blur of red flew up beside her.

“You did really well today, Marinette. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Tikki. I guess _I_ can talk to Adrien, if I am Ladybug about it.”

The Kwami laughed a little at her small joke. Marinette smiled at Tikki before turning to look… at Adrien’s smiling face and a million little hearts. She froze. How could she have forgotten her desktop picture last night? Tikki noticed her stillness but said nothing. She simply floated over to Marinette’s shoulder and leaned in against her neck, offering support however she could. Swallowing hard, Marinette went into her settings and switched the picture out immediately for one of her and Alya. There. Simple. She could do this.

Then she recalled all the other pictures she had. And all the edited ones she had made. Without thinking too hard about it, she found all the files and put them into a single folder, which she put in another folder, and then put that in another folder. She made folder after folder with weird names that were simply letters and numbers. Nothing that made sense or sounded like it had anything to do with her crush. 

Satisfied she had buried the pictures far enough that she would not see them for a very long time, Marinette finally pulled up the homework for the night. Not a single word made sense. She reread and reread the first question, but still her brain could not make the shapes before her into something she could understand. She spun her chair to look away from her work to clear her mind.

All she saw was the patchwork of darker squares of pink on her walls that had not seen sunlight in over a year. There was nothing there to actually be seen, nothing to reminder her of what she had given up, but the absence of the pictures hit her harder than looking him in the eyes earlier had. She would have to put something else up, as soon as she could, but for now, for now, her heart was racing, her fingers twitching as she felt the overwhelming urge to run. Tonight was Chat’s night to patrol, so she couldn’t take to the rooftops to quell the need, not without having to talk to him about last night. She didn’t say a word, but grabbed her purse. Immediately recognizing the action, Tikki zipped over and settled into the handbag before Marinette shut it. They left by the side door. Maybe the fresh air and the walk would be enough of a distraction. She’d had enough of crying for one week. If she could just get through tonight, she could worry about tomorrow when it came.

* * *

Chat shifted and his pole toppled to the side, propelling him onto the next rooftop. The sun’s glow was fading, swallowed up by the growing cloud cover. He had wanted to get his patrol over with as soon as possible so he could get to bed at a reasonable hour. Also, he had much rather attempt to clear his head by flying over the rooftops of Paris than staring at his homework for a minute longer. He was glad he’d made the decision with the speed the rain clouds were overtaking the sky. He really didn’t have much more area to cover, just the streets near school, and then he could race back home before ever a drop could hit him, piece of cake. 

He leapt to the next rooftop and raced near the edge to build up the momentum to hurl himself toward the next, but something pink in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He skidded to a halt and backed up a few paces. Looking down and across the open plaza, he spotted Marinette standing still near an ad display. The sky darkened. He knew he needed to keep going if he wanted to beat the rain, but after a glance in the direction he had been headed, he looked once more to the girl.

She’d been acting weird in class today, and though it wasn’t a negative emotion that would attract the attention of Hawkmoth, just the strange difference made him want to check in on her anyway. At least it would be one less problem to solve. It wasn’t like Ladybug would be patrolling on his night unless he called for her. A single tiny drop of rain tapped against his cheek. Holstering his baton, he crawled up onto the ledge and settled into a cat-like crouch to observe the girl from a safe distance, his tail whipping around behind him. Surely with the rain beginning, she would come to her senses and take cover, right?

Instead, she continued to stand exactly where she had been as though Lady WiFi had paused her in place. He tilted his head. Everyone else in the plaza seemed to move as one toward shelter, until finally she alone remained. He waited for her to pop open an umbrella but realized she had none. She only wore her usual purse. What kind of hero would he be if he knowing let a sick girl stay standing there in the rain? Grabbing his staff, he held it out over the edge of the building and let it extend until it met concrete. He then let himself fall slowly forward to cross the entire distance of the plaza to land just behind the girl. He wasn’t exactly quiet, but she didn’t even flinch. How odd. How lost in her thoughts was she?

“Hey there, Princess.”

She flinched a little as the sound finally broke through her thoughts. She turned to meet his eyes and tilted her head. She opened her mouth to speak, stopped, and then finally found her words.

“Chat Noir?” she asked, confused by his appearance. 

“In the flesh,” he said with a bow. “What brings you out here this evening?”

She looked down, unable to meet his eyes. The action should not have phased him. He _had_ seen it before. She’d done it to him a million times when he had not been wearing the mask. But it was the first time she’d ever looked away from him as Chat Noir. His tail flicked around nervously behind him as he waited for her to respond.

“I, um, I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately. I thought, thought that a walk would, uh, clear my head, yeah,” she mumbled.

He looked up to the sky, to ease the tension that had seemed to fall between them. 

“While I would usually agree that taking in the city is a great way to clear one’s head, I don’t think the sky will agree with you right now.”

She blinked and looked up as well.

“Merde,” she cursed. 

He twitched at her response. He’d _never_ heard her curse. Ever. Whatever was going on with her must be more than she had revealed at school, and she had covered it up so neatly by saying she was sick. Unless all of this _was_ simply bad decisions and confusion from her illness?

“Sorry, I um, I shouldn’t have, uh, said that. I just ah, forgot my umbrella. I didn’t think about rain,” she replied, looking away from him, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’m definitely not going to make it home before…”

“Well, Princess,” Chat replied, stepping slowly into her personal space while retrieving and spinning his baton. “There are faster ways of getting you home than by foot,” he boasted as he extended the baton in his right hand to staff length and tapped it against the ground besides him. “If, if you’re okay with that?” he softly added.

She looked up at him, her eyes wide, but trusting. He gave her a soft, encouraging grin. He had not spent much time with Marinette as Chat Noir, and he had probably spent too much of it showing off at the time. Being a hero, having the freedom granted to him by his mask, had still been so new to him then. They had, unsuccessfully, attempted to take down Evillustrator together. She’d remarkably kept her cool then, even managed to signal to him during the attempt, get a hand on the pen that held the akuma, and directed him around when it came to their escape from the sinking ship. She hadn’t shown an ounce of fear then as she almost instinctively grabbed around his neck as he lifted them into the air and toward the street with his baton. 

While _he_ might not make it home tonight before the worst of the rain at least she would. He held out his left arm wide for her to join him. Bitting her lip, she slowly closed the distance between them and snaked her arms around his neck. He securely settled his left arm around her waist. It was odd to see her so unsure around him now after how put together she had been during that incident, especially after how confident she’d seemed leaving school. He wondered once again what it was about that night that let her be so confident. Or was it that _the_ Adrien Agreste intimidated her? He shook his head to clear the errant thought and focused on the present.

“Ready?”

She gave him a small nod.

“Hold tight,” he reminded her as their feet left the ground. 

He was unused to carrying someone else along for longer distances, but her weight was nothing to him in the suit. She didn’t complain or say a word as they rose and fell through the sky. Her head remained tucked in against the left side of his neck, occasionally making the bell on his collar jingle. At the apex of their latest jump, he recognized her house, just as lightning flashed in the sky. With a boom of thunder, the sky broke loose just as they landed on her rooftop. They both rushed under the awning to escape the rain. They stood, side by side, pressed against the brick wall, their hair and shoulders dampened by the fierce downpour. He reached one hand out from under the cover and huffed in frustration as the drops ran rivers over his suit.

“Do you hate getting wet like a real cat, too?” Marinette asked.

He looked over at her, surprised by her sudden collectedness.

“Nah. I don’t mind the rain too much. Just makes it a bit more hazardous to get home,” he explained as he held up his baton. “Can’t get a solid enough surface for my staff.”

He shrunk it down before he harnessed it to his lower back once more.

“I’m sure it won’t rain for long,” Marinette attempted to reassure him. “Why don’t you come inside until it dies down?”

She pointed down at the hatch that led into her house.

“Your kindness would be appreciated, Princess. If it is alright if I enter your tower?”

She laughed suddenly then, though it might have been a bit tinged with hysteria. She playfully shoved him to the side before opening the door and dropping suddenly. Worried, he followed after her. In a move that belied much practice, she had grasped the edge of the hatch in her descent and then use the momentum her drop provided to swing forward. She released her hands, flew a moment, and then gracefully land in the tiny space at the foot of her bed. She took a step down the stairs and looked up at him with a smirk.

“You coming?”

His head hanging through the hatch and his hair dangling around his face, he could only gap in surprise. Wasn’t she supposed to be sick? And when had she become so acrobatic? Had she always been that way? Shaking his head, he copied her actions exactly, pulling the hatch shut behind him. He looked up from his crouched landing at the foot of her bed. He had been in her room before when they had been training for the gaming competition, but he’d not seen it from the loft. It kind of spoke to the cat side of him to be up high and able to see everything from a distance. Maybe he should get his bed lofted in his room. Marinette stood in the main area of her room. She moved calmly as though she hadn’t just spent the past few minutes flying across Paris. He’d been way more excited the first time he’d done it. He figured she might have been at least a _little_ impressed. She turned to look up at him with a hand on her hip, looking for all the world as though it were just a normal afternoon for her.

“I’m gonna grab us a couple of towels. Did you want a snack for while you wait?”

“Uh, yeah,” he replied, suddenly feeling less sure of himself than he had a few minutes ago. “Could I maybe get some cheese?”

She tilted her head for a moment at the request before shrugging and disappearing down the next hatch. The moment he was alone in her room, curiosity grabbed him. He shouldn’t snoop, but he was dying to look around. Adrien would _never_ have been caught dead looking around, but if he were caught now, he was part cat right? Curiosity was in his nature, almost a requirement of his superhero self. He could _feel_ Plagg rolling his eyes through the transformation. He looked behind him. Just her bed and a tiny little built in shelf for a few books and a small lamp. And a rather familiar Chat Noir doll. He shuddered remembering the attack from the Puppeteer. He had almost forgotten that it was Marinette who had made the dolls to begin with. He wondered where the rest were.

Rejecting the rather obvious stairs to the lower level, Chat hopped up onto the railing and flipped off. He grabbed the floor of the loft to slow himself, and then let go to gently drop the remaining distance, much like he had when entering her room. He landed on all fours just behind her computer chair, silently so as not to draw attention from anyone else in her house. Standing, he took in the walls around him. There was no mistaking what her favorite color was. He poked around under her loft a bit. Her computer screen was asleep but on. It wouldn’t be his fault if it accidentally woke. His belt tail nudged the mouse while he looked over the things still lying on her work surface. There were a few stacks of fashion magazines. She was a little behind in her collection as she was missing the latest one with himself on the cover. His eyes slid over a few stacks of different fabrics, none yet cut, but organized in some order that was not by color or type. Perhaps in order of what she intended to produce next? Another smaller pile of fabric appeared to be a current project. The pieces were still held together by straight pins. His claws skimmed across the surface as he wondered what the black shimmering fabric felt like. While his suit did little to reveal the texture of the cloth, he was glad for the protection it provided. Without it he would have taken a straight pin to a finger by now. 

The computer screen came to life and drew his attention. Gazing in the general direction of the monitor, something seemed off even though it was just a simple background with her and her best friend. There was a small open window of their homework for tonight that he would have to finish after the rain. He wondered if he should maybe look though her email to see if he could find out why she was so off as no one who was sick should be able to perform and nail such acrobatic feats as he had just witnessed. Before he could decide, his cat ears tilted behind him, picking up the sound of her returning footsteps. He made his way over to the lounge chair and settled in. Surely he couldn’t have been doing any snooping if he were lying around like a lap cat, right?

Marinette reappeared through the trap door, a tray of snacks nested atop folded towels. She made her way over to him and set the tray beside him before handing him a towel. He accepted it as she stepped away toward her vanity pulling out her hair ties as she went. Her hair fell loose behind her, and it struck him that he had never seen her hair down. Almost like someone else he knew. After setting the ties next to her sink, she took the towel to her hair. He set his own towel over his head, lightly working it over his hair, as he continued to watch. She pulled her brush from a drawer and began to untangle her damp hair. 

They caught eyes in the mirror.

“Do you need a comb?”

Before he could reply, she began to rummage in a drawer before pulling out a small comb. She brought it over to him and held it out. 

“Though I guess it might be hard to comb around those ears without hurting them,” she remarked as she reached out as though to flick one before thinking better of it and drawing her hand back to herself.

“They aren’t real ears. They don’t hurt,” he explained.

“But I’ve seen them twitch,” she countered.

She was curious, and that wasn’t something he could fault her for. He drew up his legs and shut his eyes as he began to groom himself.

“It’s the magic, I think,” he attempted. “They act almost like…antenna? They just amplify what I can hear, even if they act out a bit based on what I’m feeling. Like they act in reverse…to amplify what I’m expressing? It’s a bit of give and take with it, now that I think about it.”

“An extra set of ears,” she said to herself.

“All the better to hear you with, my dear,” he added. 

She left him to his own devices as she made her way across the room and tossed her own used towel over the railing. By the time he’d completed his grooming, or as well as he could given the circumstances, he heard her chair twist and roll as she sat down in front of her computer. He popped a piece of cheese in his mouth. It wasn’t the same as feeding Plagg personally, but it would appease him for the moment. Marinette sat with one knee drawn up looking over the homework. He took the tray and the blanket lying over the chair with him as he moved to hover over her.

“Aren’t you living up a little too much to your cat facade, kitten?” she remarked.

He gave her a trademark Chat Noir grin before looking over her at her homework anyway.

“What are you working on?”

“Physics. But it might as well be Greek to me. I mean, there’s enough Greek letters in it anyway,” she groused.

“Physics _is_ actual Greek. Or the word is at least. It comes from the Greek word ‘ _physika’._ It means the science of natural things.”

She snapped her head to him then, mouth agape, and _finally_ she seemed impressed. Flying over Paris by magical baton couldn’t phase her, but knowing a thing or two about physics did? He raised an eye brow at her reaction but kept looking at the assignment. He glanced out the window.

“Tell you what, if you hurry and work out those problems, I’ll double check it for you.”

“You understand physics?”

“And a few other things.”

Her jaw only opened wider before she shook herself to get it together.

“I’ll do my best, but if you have to go, don’t let me hold you up.”

He thought of his large empty room and his large empty house with his father in a different country.

“It’s okay. I’ve got nothing to go back to anyway.”

It came out more bitter than he thought it would. She nearly dropped her pencil.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he fumbled for a reply that didn’t sound as severe. “There’s nothing going on at home to go back to, uh, tonight.”

She raised her own eye brow at that, but let it go and began to work on her homework. He settled on the ground near her, wrapped the blanket around himself, and continued to munch on the snacks she had provided. After the better part of an hour, she deemed herself finished and handed him her notes. He corrected her on a few problems, but it hadn’t been too far off the mark. She would have gotten them herself, eventually.She finished up her assignment and submitted it online before turning to give him her full attention.

“Thanks for your help, kitty,” she said as she pat him on the head.

Warm room. Full belly. Head pets. He almost started purring in his contentment. She didn’t seem to realize her hand was still carding through his hair as she took in the scene through her window. He followed her gaze and found that the rain had mostly subsided. 

“Guess I can’t keep you here all night,” she stated, mostly to herself.

His eyes shifted from the window to the wall, and he finally noticed what had been bothering him about her room, what had confused him when he first looked around, what he had noticed just past the computer monitor when it blinked into life.

“Why are there weird darker pink patches on the walls?”

Her hand stilled. 

“I, uh, I. Ugh.”

She took a moment to collect herself. She didn’t look at him when she answered him.

“I took down the pictures of my crush,” she admitted, drawing her hand back to herself.

Without thinking his own hand snapped out to clasp her wrist.

“Is that why you’ve been so off today?”

Her face snapped to his.

“You noticed?”

“I may be a bit of a joker, but I can see what is right in front of my eyes you know,” he said a tad too forcefully.

Did she honestly think he was that stupid? No, looking over her face, she didn’t think that. She was in shock and curled in on herself. Like Ladybug right before she had bolted at the end of their patrol. Maybe it wasn’t about him. Maybe it was about her. Did she think no one noticed her? Or paid enough attention to call her out on it? He’d heard Alya say she was sick. Did Alya even know about this thing with her crush? So why would she tell _him_ of all people about it but not her best friend? Did Marinette trust him so much? Or maybe it was just easier to talk about matters of the heart to a stranger? His hand slipped from her wrist and into hers. He gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“I’m no ex-purr-t by any means,” he began lightly, “but if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”

She drew up one leg, settled her foot on the edge of her chair, tucked her chin onto her knee, her eyes on their entwined hands resting just besides her foot.

“Thanks, Chat. But there’s not really much to tell. Just… just something…happened this weekend that made me realize that love, _true love_ , isn’t perfect. It’s messy and complicated and…and…”

A small grin grew on the corner of her lips.

“… _destructive_ … and sometimes really annoying and full of puns.”

She bit back a smirk, her eyes sliding to look off to the right, like it was some sort of joke with herself. 

“But sometimes it can be kind and honest and sweet.”

Slowly, the smirk faded and her eyes returned to him. After a moment, her face changed again as she stared at him as though a new thought occurred to her. 

“To be honest, I just sort of realized I have only ever really loved A-ah, my crush, from a distance. I think, I think I just kept putting him on this pedestal, only looking at the best things of him that I wanted to see until I’d built this perfect untouchable image of him in my mind. But real love isn’t like that, is it? You can’t truly love people from a distance, and people aren’t perfect. Their flaws are part of make them who they are. It’s not real love if you can’t love someone with their flaws and all, right?”

She turned to look to him for confirmation of her thoughts. He couldn’t hold her eyes. Swallowing hard, he sat back, his hand slipping from hers, as he was blindsided by her revelation. How often had he done just that with Ladybug? Before this weekend, he couldn’t even say he’d ever seen his Lady when she was weak. Maybe when they first became superheroes, but not at all since. Before this weekend, he had never seen her stutter or stumble over trying to get the right words together. Did he even _know_ what Ladybug’s real flaws were? It have never occurred to him that someone so brave could have flaws in their daily, non masked life. He’d only ever seen her act as a professional, only when she had been busy being the hero the citizens of Paris needed. Had he even guessed that there was a less desirable side of her? Ladybug never completely let her guard down when she was with him. Marinette squeezed his shoulder. He turned to Marinette, her dark hair skimming over her shoulders, loose. Had he ever seen Ladybug with her hair down?

“You okay?”

Chat blinked at her. He had come here to comfort her, to try and dig into the reasons she wasn’t being Marinette, and instead she had ended up ripping up his own long held notions with her few words and asking if he was okay. His breath caught in his throat as though he’d been punched in the gut. Marinette was right of course. How could you say you loved someone if you only loved them when they were only ever showing their best self? How many times had he turned down girls infatuated with _the_ _Adrien Agreste_ because they had only known him from his work as a model and not as a person? Just because he had never seen her flaws, did not mean that Ladybug did not have them. Would he still feel the same about her if she showed him the parts of her that were hard to love? 

Marinette’s brows furrowed as she frowned. She slipped off her chair and kneeled in front of him. Putting her hand solidly on his chest, she inhaled deeply for a long count before releasing that same breath with a long count. He mirrored her without realizing he was doing so, until he realized how much his lungs hurt to follow her breathing. His muscles suddenly relaxed, as though they had been taut for a long time. When had he even tensed?

“You with me?” she asked. “You seemed to fall a bit too far into your head for a minute there.”

Had he?

“How ...how did you...?”

“I, uh, had something…similar happen to me, too, on Friday. That’s how I knew. The breathing. That’s how you come back.”

He nodded at her dimly. He hadn’t had a panic attack in a while. Usually they hit in the middle of the night after a particularly hard battle. Plagg often helped him through those long nights, curled up in the crook of his neck, purring to ease his pain. Adrien would have preferred that side of himself kept to himself, but he was glad that if it had to happen in front of someone else, it was someone who had known what to do, who hadn’t left him, who had done her best to help. He rested his hand over top the one on his chest.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

She gave him a small smile. 

“What are friends for?”

He grinned back at her. Even if he wasn’t as close to her as he might like to be, he was close enough to her that she considered Chat a friend and that warmed his heart that she would befriend both his halves.

“Well, Princess, not many can say they have superheroes for friends,” he beamed at her, trying to lighten the situation.

“Hero,” she gently corrected. “Just the one.”

“Nah, I’m sure Ladybug loves you just as much as I do.”

Her face paled at the statement.

“I’m…I’m glad you think so. I think she’d be a little disappointed in me. I’m not really as brave or graceful or heroic as she is. I don’t shine quite as bright next to her. Too many flaws,” she scoffed.

Adrien had seen her clumsy and stuttering, but he had never guessed how little Marinette thought of herself. He knew that tone too, of trying to play off personal insecurities with laughter. He tightened his hand around hers. 

“You’re a different kind of brave, and that’s okay too.”

“Do you really think I’m brave, Chat?”

“You met up with Evillustrator with me. Kept your class calm under that crisis with Dark Blade. You didn’t even flinch when we went flying over Paris with only my arm between you and a multiple story fall to the ground.”

“But those were easy,” she protested. “Evillustrator was just an upset and akuma-ed version of my classmate. And with Dark Blade, that was me just telling people what to do. You did all the hard work of fighting. And why would I be afraid of falling when I had you between me and the ground?”

His mouth fell open.

“Do you trust me that much?”

“I trust you with my life,” she said without missing a beat.

It hit him harder than it should, her absolute faith in him and how quick she was to admit it. What about him made him seem so worthy of her trust? 

“Obviously,” she continued. She sat reflecting in silence a moment before adding to herself, “And apparently with almost all my secrets, my crush issues included.”

He caught on her word choice and tried to lighten the mood with his curiosity.

“ _‘Almost all’_? What other secrets are you hiding, Princess?”

She bopped his nose with her finger.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, kitty?”

He went a bit cross eyed at the finger on his nose. The action was a lot like…but then his eyes saw past her finger and he realized she was grinning brilliantly at him for the first time…since…he couldn’t remember seeing Marinette smile like this. She seemed lighter, and he was glad he’d brought her home and talked to her about all this if it meant she could smile like this now. Drawing away the hand still tucked under his, Marinette stood and held both her hands out again. He took them and let her pull him to his feet. She didn’t even budge under his weight and quickly pulled him upright, a bit too quickly in fact as he stumbled forward into her. Has she always been so strong? Or were his legs that weak? After an awkward moment of glancing at one another, he stepped back.

“Well, I guess I better get going,” he stated, trying to break the uneasiness that had fallen between him.

He gazed up at that trap door. He didn’t want to leave, not really. Not when there was warmth here in this room.

“Stay.”

The words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly…had she seen the uneasiness in his face?

“What?”

“You just still seem a little shaky standing there…probably, from earlier? Maybe give it another fifteen minutes?”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“I asked. Besides, it would easy my worry. Please…just stay.”

How could he say no to eyes like that? He gave her a nod. He finally realized that they still held hands the moment she used her grasp on him to lead him toward her lounge chair. She set him down, wrapped the blanket around him, and returned to collect the tray. He saw her still as she noticed there wasn't a crumb left.

“Did you not eat dinner?”

“I did. I tend to burn a lot more calories when I’m running around.”

She stood with the tray and looked at him over her shoulder.

“I know the feeling.”

He tilted his head at that. She nearly dropped the tray.

“Ur, um, when I’m busy, working on a project I feel like I could eat twice as much as I normally do.”

She collected herself and bit her lip. He continued to stare at her.

“How about some tea? Chamomile with honey? Sound okay? I like to drink that when I’m feeling shaky and need to calm down.”

She took a moment and clamped down on her babbling. He cut in to help her to that end.

“That sounds good.”

“Great. Just hang tight. I’ll be right back.”

She scurried down stairs. It was still weird to see Marinette almost as flustered around Chat Noir now as she usually was with Adrien in class. She had not been like that around Chat before. It was a strange shift, as though all the confidence she’d had all day was finally slipping away. His tail slowly curled and uncurled along the length of the lounge chair as he pondered the situation with Marinette to distance his thoughts from his own worries over Ladybug. Maybe her confidence had been really rattled over this crush thing? What if it evolved into something that might attract an akuma? He flopped backwards and mentally reviewed the facts he had. Something just did not add up, but what had he missed?

Marinette returned, her hands cradling a steaming mug of tea on a plate with a few madeleines surrounding the mug. The blanket slipped away from him as he sat up to accept the tea she handed him. 

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” she waved him off as she settled in onto the chair next to him, absently tucking his blanket back into place.

He tentatively took a small sip. Still a bit too hot to drink. He dunked one of the cookies into the warm liquid. She curled her hands on the edge of the chair and looked steadily at the floor.

“Marinette?”

“Hm?”

“Why did you never tell your crush how you feel?”

He bit into his cookie while she snapped her head to him.

“What makes you think I never told him?”

He shrugged.

“I don’t think anyone could say no to you.”

She scoffed at that.

“I’m just…a mess,” she huffed as she slid off the chair. “Why would any one want me?”

Her elbows found their way to the tops of her knees, her hands held out before her as though she were waiting for the answers to be given to her. He didn’t reply. Why _had_ he been so sure that no one would refuse her?

“It’s not like I didn’t try, alright.” 

She dragged her hands across her face in her frustration. 

“I tried so many times. But my self doubts, my anxiety always get the better of me. I always slip up and instead of just saying things straight out. My fears overwhelm me. No matter how many times I’ve tried to be brave, to tell him, I can’t find my courage where my heart is concerned. Fighting Hawkmoth…would be less terrifying. I just want my crush to look at me, and _see_ me, all of me, like something he wanted. But his eyes seem to shine on me for a minute or two at the most before they slide away again. And if I can’t interest him, after all this time, what point is there in even telling him?”

Chat found his hand slipping onto her head, trying to offer her comfort where he could. Wary of his claws, he began to pet her and sipped his tea.

“I sort of know how you feel.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s some one I like, but all my attempts just fall flat. Like no matter what I do, I just can’t get her to actually _see_ me. I keep trying to tell her how I feel, but she doesn’t think I mean it.”

Marinette gave in to his head pets and leaned her head against Chat’s knee.

“Maybe you’re saying it too much?”

He considered that.

“But I can’t help it. It’s like every time I see her, it’s just _there_ , right the tip of my tongue, just right under my skin bubbling to get out. I don’t think I could hold back.”

“I could always sew your mouth shut for you,” Marinette offered.

He stilled his hand and glared at her. She turned her face up at him, giggled, and then settled her head right back against his knee. His hand found her hair again, silently combing through the loose locks.

“What a pair we make, Chat. One of us completely unable to say anything to their crush, and the other completely unable to say anything but how much they like their crush.”

Chat glossed over the fact that he wasn’t sure he would label his feelings for Ladybug as simple as a crush, but then again, after this talk with Marinette, he wasn’t sure he could label it as love either.

“Maybe we should switch for day? I’ll let you handle mine, and I’ll handle yours?”

She shook her head against his knee.

“I don’t plan on telling him anymore, remember?”

“I don’t think you should give up so easily.”

“I think things are too far beyond my control now.”

“What does that even mean?”

She swallowed and looked up at him, her chin and hands resting on his knee. 

“Do you ever get the feeling, sometimes, that your future isn’t entirely your own? Like fate has something planned for you, something you didn’t get a say in, and not that it’s not a good future, it’s just not the one you asked for?”

He sipped his tea and considered her question.

“Can you keep a secret, Marinette?”

“You have _no_ idea,” she replied with a smirk.

He lifted an eyebrow and waited for an actual answer.

“For one of the heroes of Paris? I’ll take it to my grave,” she replied somberly.

“In…in my civilian life, before this,” he began pointing to his mask, “I did have a future all lined up for me, and it wasn’t fate that put it there. The same day I tried to rebel, the same day I tried to find my own destiny, fate found me and gave me this other responsibility. I didn’t ask to be Chat Noir, but it felt like Chat Noir chose me because it aligned with something I already wanted. I wanted freedom and a chance to have a different life. Maybe fate is just the universe giving you the things you would have wanted for yourself, but you just didn’t know that they were an option.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

She shook her head. Opened her mouth to reply, closed it, and then attempted again.

“I guess I never really thought of running around as a superhero as a chance at freedom. I always thought of it like a really heavy burden to bear, to be responsible for the safety of everyone in Paris. That it would be a heavy thing to carry on your shoulders on top of everything else in your life.”

“I…never really thought of it as a burden, more like the trade off? Something I have to do to be worthy of the freedom I craved. Sure I have to fight, but how many people can say they have run the rooftops of Paris? Or watched the sun set from the Tower in places most people can’t get to? Or traveled through the city by magical baton?”

“I can,” she shrugged.

“Well, you can _now_. You couldn’t say that _yesterday,_ now could you?”

She giggled a little at that but said nothing else. He swallowed the last of his tea and set the empty mug aside. Her smiling was enough to assure him that her feelings would not lead to an akuma attack, at least not tonight. He would keep an eye on her tomorrow as well. Heart to hearts were never easy, but he hoped that things wouldn't be weird between then when he saw her in class. Until he remembered it wouldn’t be weird for _her_ when she saw Adrien because she didn’t know he was Chat Noir. It would just be a bit weird for him alone then.

“It’s getting late. You should get home soon,” she sighed, as she pushed off his knee to stand.

Chat helped her stand upright before he found his own feet.

“Thanks for having me, Marinette,” he said with a dramatic bow.

“Any time, Chat.”

He nodded once at her before bounding up to her loft and perching up on the railing. Before he could jump toward the hatch, she called out once more. 

“Chat?”

He looked back at her over his shoulder.

“Take care of yourself.”

“You too, Marinette.”

“See ya around!”

He gave her his two finger salute before flying upwards, through the hatch, and onto her roof. He pulled out his baton and let the damp air overtake him, to help clear his mind. He had succeeded in helping Marinette tonight, but he had lost something in the process. She had been thinking so long and hard about a situation that he had known nothing about, and it had somewhat mirrored the one he found himself in. He could feel Plagg pressing in, protesting having been transformed this long and probably craving cheese, but Adrien needed the time to breathe after his revelations over Ladybug tonight. He ran the roofs far longer than he probably should have. When he finally arrived home, Plagg took up munching his cheese and said little, content to watch form a distance. Ignoring his kwami’s strange silence, Adrien fell onto his bed and stared at his ceiling for a long, long time.


	5. tuesday 14 february (day)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today, Marinette dwells on her conversation with Chat the night before. Alya is awesome, and I love her. Adrien is perfect. *cues angels singing*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first, sorry i didn't post yesterday. i hurt my wrist doing some heavy lifting and working on final edits wasn't something i was physically capable of. a day with my hand in a brace has helped.
> 
> second, my edits/this particular "day" in the time line *may* have gotten a little out of hand, so I ended up splitting up this chapter as you can see by my once again increased chapter count.

The heavy weather of the night before gave way to a silver clouded sky illuminated from behind by the hidden sun. Marinette had tossed and turned most of the night consumed with worry over how much she had told Chat and for Chat. It had been so easy to simply just exist with him when he wasn’t trying to flirt with her at every turn or joke at every inappropriate moment during a battle. Maybe too easy. She curled up on her side, her arms around the neck of her stuffed cat.

She had gone out last night just to clear her head only to be caught off guard by the ad display. And Chat, Chat had _noticed_. He’d escorted her home, helped her with her homework, and called her out about having been weird. He had listened to her ramble about “true love” and her crush and her coward heart without judging her.

Then he’d suffered through a panic attack because of her! She squeezed her tiger a little tighter and blinked away tears. How was she going to make _that_ up to him? He had been so comfortable to be around, from the mutual head scratches to him offering the exact kind of support she needed, and then she’d done _that_ to him. Burying her face into striped fabric, Marinette recalled asking him, no, _telling_ him and then _begging_ him to stay.

He had needed a little more rest, sure, but had she asked to ease her worry about his wellbeing or because she had wanted to hold onto that moment in her room a little longer? She’d been so at ease with him that she’d almost let it slip who she was so many time from directly telling him to his face all the aspects of her true love to admitting she knew what it was like to travel by magical staff. What was happening to her?

_“Maybe fate is just the universe giving you the things you would have wanted for yourself, but you just didn’t know that they were an option.”_

She groaned at the memory. How did he always know exactly what to say? And didn’t that just make it worse? He was _the thing_ that fate had given her, and he kept doing all the exact things that would be something she would want if she had accepted it as a option. But how could she do that to Chat? Her heart belonged to Adrien. If someone was going to love Chat, he should never be made to feel like second best. She would not want that for anyone she cared about, Chat included.

The alarm on her phone sounded for the second time. Fumbling her hand around in her small book nook, she found the piece of tech. She silenced her alarm with a thumb before pulling up her contacts list. Maybe she should just text Alya to take notes for her and stay in bed all day? 

And there, at the top of the list was “Adrien”. She had not yet deleted the number Alya had given her so long ago. It felt sort of wrong then to have said number without having received the number from him directly, almost like it was cheating. She tapped the delete button. 

> **Are you sure you want to delete this contact?**

Her breath stilled, her mind warring with itself over following through. Reminding herself that this was to protect him, she hit ‘yes’ with her thumb, rolled out of bed, and raced to get ready for class. If she kept moving, maybe her thoughts over what she had done would not catch up with her.

* * *

Marinette sat through her classes, her head laying on her arms, her mind still lost in memories of the night before. She hadn’t expected Chat Noir to give Marinette a second glance if there wasn’t an akuma involved, let alone escort her home to keep her from the rain. And then she had opened her mouth and made a mess of things. What had she been thinking? She had been so pained at giving up Adrien that she couldn’t even let herself think about what she was trying to do, but she trusted Chat enough to tell him some of it? Logically, _he_ was her true love after all. She _could_ trust him with anything, and talking about letting go of her crush, even with as evasive as she had been about the finer details, had been freeing in a way. It had lightened her mood a little to just it get out there in the open, to put to words all the feelings that had been trapped within her heart.

Chat had seen that something had been wrong with her. How could she _not_ just spill the details to him when he had looked so worried? As worried as he had on the tower Sunday night. She had not been ready to talk about it then, but at least she’d found the courage to talk to him about half of it last night and it had helped her.

And then… 

Her pencil slipped out of her hand and onto the desk. For as much as she had wanted her crush to _see_ her, last night she had _seen_ him. 

She had witnessed Chat at his best, him just being himself, helping her with Physics of all things, his concern and his attempt to just brighten her mood. Not his over flirtatious self, not terrible pun after terrible pun. He wasn’t the same cat that showed up on her doorstep, kissed her hand, and flexed in front of her while trying to make her feel flattered to be his stand-in Ladybug for a single night. She had basically told him to his face what she had thought of him, even if he didn’t realize that’s what it was. 

Seeing Chat in such a different light had sharply shown her how she had never seen Adrien at his worst. She’d never seen Adrien without his smile or lose his tempter or be goofy. Adrien walked around like he was constantly at a photo shoot, never a hair out of place. Looking down at the back of his head from her seat behind him, she had never wanted until that moment to know what Adrien’s hair might look like when it was all ruffled up and slightly damp until she had looked at the way Chat’s hair had been last night as she had run her hands through it.

Maybe there was something the magic had been trying to tell her after all. In having decided to try and let Adrien go, she had seen a bit more clearly what _true_ love was supposed to be like, rather than the picture perfect version she had kept imagining it to be in her head whenever she’d thought about dating Adrien.

Almost as soon as she tried to find words for it, she’d seen yet another Chat altogether. One that had panic attacks _just like her_. It had taken her a little longer than it should have to realize his distress as wrapped up in her own thoughts as she had been. At least she didn’t panic, she just slid right into action, just as Ladybug as she had ever been to do what she could to fix the problem. It hadn’t been much, but she remembered well enough what had happened to her Friday night to know kind of what to do. She couldn’t calm him with magic the way Tikki had done for her, but she could try and get him to calm his breathing, and that was kind of the same thing right? 

More concerns about why dating Adrien would be problematic arose. Would she have been so calm or so successful at helping Adrien through a panic attack? Did Adrien even have panic attacks? Could Adrien do the same for her after a fight with an akuma? Would he even be able to recognize the signs? Chat was probably the only person in the world who could _know_ the feeling that took over when she no longer wore a mask, but the fight still raged on in her mind.

She didn’t realize until after Chat had left last night that she’d been scared during the whole thing, not of him, but for him. She hadn’t realized until then, that Chat could have the same problem as her with the panic attacks. She hadn’t realized how alike they were, that though their superhero halves could be perceived as opposing forces, they were an interconnected whole. ‘Yin’ couldn’t be defined without ‘yang’. They needed one another for balance. He had fallen apart in front of her, for reasons she did not press him about, but she’d been there, when he’d needed her, to make him steady again. In a fight, he’d always been there to be the one to take the blow for her, to clear the way, to gain her time to be calm and think. It had been strange to be in a sort of reversed situation where she directed things to give him time to be still. 

While letting go of Adrien was proving difficult, how much more so would it be if she had to battle akuma as Ladybug without Chat Noir by her side? It was unsettling enough to give up something she had never truly had, but to imagine losing Chat sent her to bed last night shaking with a kind of fear she did not understand. 

She jerked, startled by the sound of the last bell.

“Did you even take any notes?” Alya asked her, barely glancing away from her phone.

Her head still resting on her arms, Marinette looked up at her friend who was probably busy replying to comments in the blog.

“Not really…. will you lend me yours?”

“Of course, but only if you tell me what’s got you so down today?”

Marinette huffed and looked forward, her eyes settling on the back of a familiar golden head.

“Did you make something and forget to bring it?” Alya whispered.

It wasn’t enough information that anyone over hearing would know what they meant, but they both knew. Alya was wondering if Marinette had made anything in yet another attempt to confess her feelings to Adrien since it was Valentine’s Day, like she had failed to do with the scarf so long ago, or with the note she had forgotten to sign, or a million other little moments when Marinette’s bravery had failed her or her scattered mind undid her. Of course Alya would use the notes as leverage to know about the one thing Marinette wasn’t ready to discuss. 

“Outside,” Marinette replied.

Alya nodded her understanding. They were likely to be overheard if they stayed in the room. They collected their things and made their way out of the classroom together. Alya shoulder bumped her.

“What gives? I know if you had a plan you would have let me in on it by now,” Alya began. “Or do you not have a plan? Are you just going to try and wing it?”

Marinette slumped.

“It’s not anything like that, Alya. I would have told you if I were planning on winging it.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

Marinette looked away.

“Nothing.”

“What?” Alya practically screeched.

Marinette slapped her hand to her forehead and groaned. She knew she couldn’t keep the fact she was going to give up on Adrien from her best friend outside of the suit, forever, but she also didn’t think it would start this badly. Alya crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you better start talking and talking quick. You have been completely un-Marinette like for days now. I want answers.”

Marinette wiped her hands down her face before raising them up to clench them. Looking around, she spotted an empty classroom. People would be leaving, making their way out into the world. No one would think twice. Grabbing Alya by the arm, Marinette dragged the other girl into the abandoned room and shut the door firmly behind them. After a nod at having secured a quiet location, Marinette turned to find Alya perched on a desk, her eyebrow raised, waiting.

Marinette held open her hands and sought out how to begin telling Alya everything without telling her _everything_. She deserved to know Marinette wasn’t going to pursue Adrien, but Marinette couldn’t give her _all_ the very important or magical reasons behind her decision. She thought about her conversation with Chat. Maybe she could at least tell her half of that.

“I’m not,” Marinette stopped, but found her courage. “I’m not going to confess to Adrien. I’m giving up on that.”

Alya blinked. And then laughed heartily until there were tears in the corner of her eyes. She wiped them away with a finger.

“Oh man, that was a good one,” Alya said. “Now tell me what’s really bothering you.”

Marinette didn’t say anything, just stood there gazing at her best friend, leaving her face blank and open.

“Oh,” Alya whispered as it dawned on her. “Oh, no, honey.” 

The girl immediately slipped off the desk and drew closer to her.

“Why would you give up on him? You’ve been in love with him for as long as I’ve known you. You have his pictures all over your walls. You know his schedule by heart. It’s a little hard for me to believe you right now.”

Marinette lowered her head.

“I took down his pictures.”

“What?”

Alya’s mouth hung open, her eyes wide in surprise. Marinette pressed on with her confession.

“And I buried the ones on my computer. I forgot about his schedule. I’ll have to get rid of that too.”

Alya’s mouth gaped a little before she shut it and marched across the room to her friend with fire in her eyes. She put her hands on Marinette’s shoulders and glared at her hard.

“What happened that made you change your mind about this? Did he _do_ something?”

Marinette reminded herself of all the things she’d spoken about with Chat. Her hands slipped over the ones on her shoulders as she shook her head.

“No, it wasn’t something he did. It’s something I…uh, look, I I know his schedule and all his extracurricular activities, but how can I confess that I like him, when truth be told I don’t really know him? When have I ever been able to get out more than a few words around him? I know he likes Ultimate Mecha Strike III and he’s good at it, but I don’t really _know_ him, Alya.”

Her investigator skills taking over, Alya pulled away slightly as she continued to question Marinette.

“And so you’re just going to give up him? just like that? Without having even tried? I’m sure you both have more in common than you think.”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know any of that for sure, and my crush just gets in the way of me trying to get close enough to know that, doesn’t it?”

Alya blinked a few moments and thought over what Marinette just said, trying to make it make sense.

“Are you saying you’re going to abandon your crush in the hope that maybe you’ll finally calm down enough to actually get to know him as a friend first?”

The way Alya phrased it made it sound more like something Marinette would do, and to be honest, it sounded like the best thing to let Alya believe. Marinette did not have any intentions of seeking Adrien out later on, but letting go of her crush and possibly at least reaching out to be his friend wouldn’t be too bad, right? Marinette could still be his friend, even if also being Ladybug would keep her from having a romantic relationship with him. Dimly, she nodded her agreement to Alya’s assessment. She didn’t need to know that there could be nothing more than friendship between her and Adrien. Alya whistled. 

“Dang, girl,” Alya began. “And just when I thought…”

Alya crossed her arms, leaned back against a desk, and sighed. Marinette pressed her.

“Thought what?”

Alya tilted her head.

“You really must have been out of it today. Usually your Adrien radar is a lot more on it.”

Marinette mirrored the head tilt.

“What are you even talking about?”

Alya threw her hands up in the air.

“Adrien! He’s been moping about all day, and the only time he doesn’t look as out of it as _you_ do is when he’s been looking _at you_.”

“Adrien was looking at me?” Marinette echoed, confused.

Alya rolled her eyes and bopped her friend’s forehead with her open palm.

“He was stealing glances at you all day, like he was worried about you. I mean, I was worried about you too, what with all the sighing, but like even _he_ noticed it.”

Marinette felt a cold chill flood her, freezing her.

“He _noticed_ me?”

“Yes! That’s why I’m just…ugh… I thought maybe _he_ might be the one to suddenly confess to you with the way he kept looking at you, but then every time he saw how upset you looked, he kept looking away even more sad.”

“ _Adrien_ noticed me? Why would he have to notice me _now?_ ”

Marinette could barely breathe. Alya threw her arms around her friend and held her tight. She was silent as tears made tracks down her face. Alya simply held her, stroked her hair, and let her friend cry for a while before speaking again. Marinette was almost afraid she’d rip Alya’s plaid shirt for how tightly she gripped it. Sniffling a few last times, she pushed down the last of her tears and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Look, I can’t confirm for sure what is going on with Adrien,” Alya began softly. “Maybe I was reading him wrong all day, but I do think it’s brave what you want to do.”

Alya pulled away and smiled sadly at her best friend.

“It takes a lot of heart to set your heart aside for someone else.”

Marinette threw herself at Alya again.

“You’re the best friend anyone could ever ask for, you know that right?” Marinette told her.

Alya chuckled at that and patted her on the back.

“Of course I am. That’s why I only make friends with the best, but Marinette, are you sure you want to do this? To try and just be his friend?”

Marinette pulled back and gave her friend a straight face.

“Nothing else has worked yet has it?”

“No, I suppose not,” Alya agreed. “And even if this doesn’t work, you could always send him flowers,” Alya teased gently.

Marinette rolled her eyes and threaded her arm with Alya’s to guide her out of the room.

“Is this why you were out of it this weekend?” Alya asked as they walked down the hall.

“For the most part,” Marinette hedged.

Saying it was the _only_ reason would have felt like lying to her friend, but she couldn’t exactly tell her that she had realized magic had confirmed that her true love was in fact Chat Noir.

“You know you didn’t have to go through all this alone,” Alya reprimanded her.

“I know, I know. I just needed to sulk a little and get my thoughts straight before I could really talk about it,” Marinette told her honestly.

They reached the doors to the school before Alya threw her arms around her again.

“I would have spent my entire weekend listening to inane Marinette babble while you tried to figure it out. _I’m_ your best friend for a reason.”

Marinette shoved her off.

“Yeah, you would have been content to listen to me babble only because nothing interesting happened with Ladybug for you to go cover.”

Alya shrugged with a smile add refused to be ashamed.

“You know me too well, Marinette.”

“There is a reason I’m your best friend.”

“Yes, you are. Just don’t forget that I am yours too, do you understand me?” Alya scolded with a finger in her friend’s face.

Marinette raised her hands in defeat.

“Yes, yes. I know.”

“Good. Do you want me to come over tonight? I’m sure my mom wouldn’t mind. We could watch movies and eat junk food that my mom never buys.”

Marinette smiled, glad she had a friend as good as Alya.

“It’s okay. I’ve been feeling a little better now, but I’m still kind of worn out from overthinking all this. My parents are going out to dinner, so I think I’ll probably just eat something small and go to bed early tonight.”

“If you’re sure?”

“Hanging out does sound good, but maybe we could schedule it in for some time this weekend?” Marinette offered.

“Alright. Sounds good. Maybe I’ll have new footage to edit for the Ladyblog by then!”

A male voice cut in.

“What’s this I hear about the Ladyblog?”

The girls turned as one to see Adrien approaching them from the curb. Marinette watched him walk forward, his small smile, his hands tucked into the pockets of his dark gray peacoat, which paired well with his light blue scarf. The scarf she had made him. The wind set the scarf and a few of his locks fluttering. She wouldn’t be surprise if the cloud cover broke to allow a single beam of sunlight to fall only on him while angels sang in the background. What was it about him that made it seem like the world simply bended around him to make him look so wonderful? Alya took Marinette’s hand and gave her a small nod of encouragement. Marinette remembered her decision and returned the nod to her friend before Adrien settled in next to them.

“I was just telling Marinette how I hope that Ladybug will do something interesting this week so I could update the blog,” Alya explained.

“Yeah, there hasn’t been an update in over a week now, has there?” Adrien remarked.

“You read the blog?” Alya asked a little surprised she didn’t already know that.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Adrien returned.

Alya rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and hip bumped Marinette.

“Not everyone.”

Marinette scowled at her.

“Not a fan of Ladybug?” Adrien asked.

If he only knew. Marinette swallowed her doubts and drew on the reserve of confidence she felt as Ladybug to look Adrien in the eyes.

“It’s not that I’m not a fan,” Marinette protested. “But what’s the point in checking out a blog when I already know everything on it through osmosis?”

“Osmosis?” Adrien echoed.

Marinette rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and glared to her right.

“Yeah. It’s not like I’m best friends with the person who maintains it and tells me all about it right after it happens and makes me beta read articles and watch videos before they upload or just texts me to tell me all about it at 3 in the morning.”

Adrien let out a snicker but it quickly grew into full out doubled over laughter. The girls looked to him, shared a look of their own, and then both returned their eyes to the boy hanging onto his knees.

“I never realized you were that snarky, Marinette,” Adrien confessed as he got ahold of himself.

Alya gave her friend an eye brow raise that Marinette returned with an another eye roll. Alya showed mercy to the boy lost by their silent communication in her usual investigative fashion.

“What are you still doing here, Adrien? You aren’t usually out here for very long.”

He scratched the back of his neck.

“Uh, yeah, I just got out of um, practice, early, yeah, but my driver is running a little late. It’s warm enough out, so I figured I’d just wait out here.”

Marinette tilted her head at his reply. She may have given up on chasing her feelings for him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t recognize that was a lie. She still knew his schedule like the back of her hand. He did not have practice today. For anything. Except lying. Why would he lie about why he was out there? Alya seemed to pick up on Marinette’s confusion and then looked at Adrien. She seemed to realize something before a text drew her attention.

“Oh, uh, just look at the time. Gotta go!” Alya shouted before running off.

Marinette gapped like a fish. How could Alya just abandon her like that? Adrien stood beside her, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot, when her own phone went off. Marinette pulled up the text from… Alya?

> **Alya**
> 
> _Adrien made up the excuse because wants to talk to you! Nino just confirmed it._

Marinette clenched the phone just a little too hard and swallowed. Of course Alya would abandon her to give her a chance to form a friendship with him. She breathed in deep. She could do this. _Just pretend you’re wearing a mask,_ she told herself. _You’re fine_. Satisfied with her pep talk, she turned to Adrien who stood there looking at her shyly. Huh. She’d never seen him look _shy,_ not since that first day.… and that was what tugged at her heart strings. The part of her that wanted others to be happy won out over her fear. She could be brave enough for the both of them if it would ease his hesitation.

“So how long do you think it will be before your driver gets here?” Marinette asked.

“A while,” he said quickly before adding, “I think.”

“Oh, I, um…”… _come on, Marinette, think of something_ …“are you hungry?”

Of all the questions she could have asked and she went with _that_? He tilted his head. Frustrated with herself, she just plowed through with her blunder as best she could.

“Parents! My parent’s bakery is really close. I could get you um, something, and wait with you? So you wouldn’t be alone?”

His face contorted into a softer form of confusion, maybe even hesitance?

“You’d wait with me?”

The shyness was back, for what reason, she couldn’t quite understand.

“Of course I’ll wait with you,” she said without hesitation. “What are friends for?”

A slow smile dawned across his face.

“Yeah. That sounds good. Let’s go!”

She blinked. She’d meant to go get him something and then return, not for him to join her. It was fine. She was fine. She could handle it. Turning toward home, Adrien fell into step beside her.

“So how are you?” Adrien asked.

“I’m fine,” she said without thinking.

“Oh,” he mumbled, a little thrown by her quick comment. “Cause I know Alya said that you were sick over the weekend.”

“I was, um, sick. Over the weekend. But…I’ve been getting better?”

She hadn’t meant to phrase that in the form of a question, but he didn’t seem notice. 

“I’m glad to hear it.”

He smiled softly at her as she pulled open the door for the bakery. His face immediately lit up when he looked inside. Despite how packed the place was, they managed to slip into the crowded shop. Marinette watched fascinated as he took a deep breath and happily shut his eyes. She shook herself. What was she doing being distracted by watching him? They were here for a reason.

“What do you want?” she asked over the noise. 

He turned to her quickly. 

“I know the owners. I can get you something fresh from the back,” she explained with a grin. “And we won’t have to wait in this line.”

“Whatever you think looks best today,” he replied. “I trust you know what that would be better than I do.”

She nodded.

“Stay…” she paused a moment, her thoughts drifting toward last night. She shook it off to continue her statement, only to realized Adrien looked as lost as her train of thought. “Um, stay here. Look around. I’ll be right back.”

She gave him a forced grin before slipping through the crowd and behind the counter. Greeting her busy parents as she went, she tucked her backpack near the stairs to take to her room later before making her way back to the racks of cooling pastries. After slipping a few cookies into her purse for Tikki, Marinette took up a box and began to tuck in what caught her eye. A quarter of a crisp baguette. A few golden croissants. A selection of different flavored macarons. Satisfied with her choices, she closed up the box and returned up front where Adrien stood admiring all the treats on display. She silently lead the way back out of the shop to sit on the front steps of the school to await his driver’s arrival. Passing him the box, she let him have first pick.

“What flavors of macarons are these?”

She almost rolled her eyes at the excitement in his voice.

“Sweet tooth, huh? I never would have guessed.”

He looked away a little embarrassed.

“Working as a model means I don’t really get to eat sweets all that much. My dad won’t let the chef make desserts for me.”

No desserts? What kind of life was that? A small fire burned in her chest that anyone would deny him something sweet. She leaned in a little closer and began to point things out as she would to any customer to the bakery, her fury funneled into fueling into her cheery facade.

“The red ones are strawberry, and the green are mint. The buttery colored ones are lemon. The ones that almost looks pale pink are orange. The purple are lavender. The golden brown ones are salted caramel. And the darkest ones are chocolate.”

“Do you always have so many?”

“It’s Valentine’s Day,” she reminded him. “My parents always make a million extra and more flavors than usual.”

“Oh,” he said, as though he’d completely forgotten the holiday.

She shrugged, reached into the box, and pulled out one of the croissants. If he never got sweet things, then she would let him have all the macarons. It occurred to her, that she had not planned to get him anything for the holiday and had managed to get him something anyway. Shoving down her feelings, she reminded herself she would have done this for any one of her classmates. Okay, maybe not Chloe. But for Nino, Rose, Juleka, Alya, the others, of course. She’d done the same thing for Chat Noir last night, hadn’t she? Just because it was a holiday, did not mean it had to mean something. Friends could still be friendly even on holidays. She tore off a piece of the buttery roll and popped it into her mouth. 

Adrien seemed to have been having a tough time settling on one single macaron. After a long pondering over the open box in his lap, the boy settled on the chocolate macaron. _A true sweet tooth indeed,_ she thought with a smile to herself. It was easier to sit with him and not make a fool of herself as long as she had croissant in her mouth. She lamented that she had not thought of that months ago, back when she could have…. Marinette swallowed hard and looked across the street. His moan drew her attention.

“Oh my god, Marinette,” he mumbled before swallowing. “This is the best macaron I’ve ever had.”

“You still have a few more to try before you can say which is the best you’ve ever had,” she tossed back. “But I’m sure something from my parents bakery will definitely be the best you’ve ever had. My parents only make the best.”

She had no problem talking about how proud she was of her parents’s work.

“I’m sure everything they make is simply the best,” he agreed. “I can’t wait to try everything.”

“Well, don’t rush yourself. You can take it all home.”

“All of it?”

She shrugged.

“I can get those any time I want. I don’t have to worry about my parents telling _my_ chef not to let me have them,” she teased lightly.

“Thanks, Marinette,” he beamed.

She felt the blush rising her to cheeks and stared at her feet. Until his smile, she’d been doing so well keeping the crush in check. Her palms were sweating. Kwami, she had to do something quick. Keep it from turning awkward. Her heart thudded loudly. Uh, what to do? Chat! That’s it. Chat smiled all the time, and she never felt awkward around him. Just pretend Adrien was Chat, and it would keep everything from being awkward right? She knew it would probably turn out like every attempt she’d ever made at using a nearly empty bobbin in her sewing machine, but it was all she had left. She turned to him and mentally popped cat ears on his head and a mask on his face. His hair wasn’t quite messy enough for it, too much product holding every strand in place, but it sort of worked.

“You’re welcome.”

There. Totally normal reply.

“How’d you do with the homework last night?” Adrien asked, looking pointedly down at the box as he tried to decide on his next macaron.

She had not expected that question. She couldn’t exactly tell him she had had one of the Heroes of Paris overlook her physics could she?

“I’m not really the best at physics, but I did okay, I think.”

“You know, I’m actually pretty good at physics. I could help you, next time, if you wanted? Check your homework for you?”

Marinette of a week ago would have jumped at the chance. Marinette of last night had had Chat Noir doing that work. She wasn’t sure if he’d willingly drop in again and do the same every night. Maybe she should take Adrien up on his offer? Friends helped each other with homework, right?

“Yeah, maybe next time. If you’re free,” she agreed.

“I’m just glad I didn’t have anything tonight.”

“Why is that?”

“Cause then I wouldn’t have gotten to hang out with you,” he said brightly.

He was going to kill her. 

Her heart stopped in her chest and didn’t show signs of starting again soon. She had made this decision alone. She hadn’t told anyone except Alya. Chat Noir did not count. There was was no way Adrien could have found out, but he must have known somehow. There was no other reason that he would suddenly decide to be this friendly toward her after all this time. Unless the universe really did just enjoy tormenting her this much, to hear her resolution to let Adrien go and then throw him so forcefully onto her path, to test her resolve. She swallowed painfully. Of course her luck would put her in this position. His face began to shift, his smile faltering, and as though he were the puppeteer holding her strings, she replied if only to reassure him.

“It is kind of nice to hang out,” she agreed. “And not have to worry about homework."

“Speaking of, can I see your mobile?” he asked holding out his hand.

She unlocked her phone and gave it to him without speaking. Words would only get tangled up if she tried them. His finger tips skimmed across her wrist and palm as he took her phone. A few taps later and his own phone chimed.

“There. Now even if I am at a photo shoot or something, you can still ask me questions about the homework if you need to.”

Seriously? Her heart couldn’t take this. He had given her his number _after she’d made the decision to delete it this morning_. She tried to focus on keeping calm. He picked up his own phone and typed in a few things, presumably to save her contact information. Soon after, a vehicle pulled up to the curb. Adrien frowned.

“That’s my ride.”

“Then you better get going,” she replied, still tense and holding back. “I can’t keep you here all night.”

He tilted his head at her words, his eyes drifting down to his right. He picked up the lid and tucked it into place over the selection of baked goods before swinging his pack on once more.

“Did you want a ride home?”

She shook her head.

“You know it’s not that far.”

“Okay then,” he let it go. “Have a good night, Marinette.”

“You too, Adrien.”

“See you tomorrow?”

She nodded once before watching him slip into his car and drive away. When the vehicle was out of sight, she let go of the smile she’d been holding onto for him. Emotions swirled within her, and she craved something simple to focus on to distract her from the deep ache. Where was Hawkmoth’s akuma to distract her when she needed them?


	6. tuesday 14 february (night)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'He deserved to know the truth. All of it. No matter how much it hurt.'
> 
> Ladybug finally talks to Chat Noir.

After returning home, Marinette spent a few hours running the register at the bakery, helping her parents beat back the tide of people in search of a sweet treat to gift their lovers later that night. Just after sunset, her parents finally put up their sold out sign and got ready for their own night out, reminding her not to stay up too late before they left for dinner. 

She'd done her homework, so that was something at least. Through her window, the city lights illuminated the low hanging clouds that still covered the sky. She paced her room thinking while Tikki followed her with her eyes. She should sew something or maybe try sketching out something new, but nothing felt right. She was too anxious to sit still long enough and focus. Part of her felt that if she stilled even for a moment, all the feelings she'd set aside would rise up and swallow her.

She couldn't let that happen. Her eyes caught on her rooftop hatch. What did it matter if it was a bit early? Her parents weren't home to notice her departure and likely would not realize the lump in the bed was only pillows and not her when they returned for the night. Pausing in her pacing, Marinette wondered if going out this early was the right thing to do considering she really only wanted to be outside for herself rather than for patrol. Tikki floated over at Marinette’s hesitation, and after considering, she smiled at her charge understanding her thoughts without words.

“There’s a storm coming, Marinette. We should go.” 

Decision made for her, Marinette transformed immediately. With a few leaps, she was free, swinging above the city streets, the pull of gravity tugging at her stomach as she disobeyed its laws. Her muscles burned her warm against the cool night as the string of her yo-yo dug into the protective material of her suit. The wind reddened her exposed skin and whipped up her hair. Up here, Marinette's problems seemed so small and far away as she roamed Ladybug's much larger realm of Parisian roofs. 

It wasn't the same as feeling better or getting over things, but for the first time since Friday she felt calm, steady. Paris stood long before she'd been born and would be there long after her. 

She kept moving. Luckily, there was little that required her attention as a superhero that night. Mostly she watched couples strolling through the city of lights, enjoying each other's company. A florist closing shop for the night later than usual spotted her and gifted her a rose. She accepted it graciously and helped him to pull his last cart inside for the night. She threaded the flower through her pigtails to keep it safe as she patrolled her route. She caught an escaping balloon for one couple and saved someone from a nasty fall after she had caught her heel on uneven pavement. With so many couples wandering the city, it seemed no one else really wanted to be among them. She couldn’t deny the slight sting of jealousy she felt at watching them all go about their nights arm in arm with someone they loved.

A small bit of joy rose within her though when she spotted her parents hand in hand heading home. She dropped down long enough to offer them the rose she’d been gifted. She would probably only damage it more than the high winds from flying above the city already had. Looking at them now, she wondered how they had known they had found the perfect person for them. After sharing a look between themselves, her mother accepted the bloom. Ladybug tossed her yo-yo, gave them a cheerful wave, and disappeared without having uttered a word to either of them.

Finished with her patrol route, Ladybug dropped down onto a roof with a high wall along the edge to brace herself against the cold brick. She leaned her head over her arms, huffed, and tried to keep her mind from things that never were and never would be. There was no need for her to still be out, but she lingered in the chilly night air. If she went back to her room, the walls would only press in and she did not want that reminder, not now, not tonight. Better to stay out until she could return home weary enough to slip directly into sleep. Continuing on her journey, she took a meandering path towards home when she spotted a fairly deserted plaza and painfully recognized the very display that had caught her eye the day before while she had walked the city as Marinette. Her arms propelled her down into the plaza before she realized she had made the decision to move toward that old perfume ad. Landing gently, Ladybug crossed the short distance over to his illuminated features. 

Adrien Agreste was a handsome boy, there was no denying that fact. Golden locks, intense green eyes, and that jaw made for one pretty picture. Gabriel Agreste had been blessed with a son who bore the perfect face to promote his work. Though aware of his physical gifts, Adrien never once seemed vain about it. Instead his own presence had always felt much more humble and wholesome to her, well, at least after his disastrous first impression. It was one of the many things about him that continued to draw her back in, like Icarus to the sun. If only her wings had not been made of wax, she lamented.

She curled her arms around herself when she heard the telltale sound of a pole hitting the ground soon followed by boots. A cold chill ran down her spine. This was her night to patrol which meant there were only two reasons Chat Noir would be here to find her. The first, an akuma attack. The second, because the significance of today. She did not turn to him but waited, holding her breath.

"Good evening, my Lady," Chat began. “What's a paw-some hero like yourself doing alone on a night like this?"

She could almost see him bowing in his overdramatic way. His voice was light and full of puns. No akuma attack then. She let go of the breath she’d been holding.

"I'm not good company tonight, Chat," she replied.

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard.”

She twisted her head to look back at him over her shoulder, and this time, she didn’t hold back. What would be the point? She could mask her identity, but at least this much between them, she refused to cover up. Not after last night. She left her emotions out for him to see. He paled at what she laid bare. In an instant, he closed what little distance remained between them.

“Ladybug?”

His panic overtook his voice. She slumped and looked back to the display, if only to keep her eyes from his a while longer. It cut her to see his deep concern when what she felt would only hurt him more. 

Her right hand lifted a little toward the picture of the person she would not allow herself to want, let alone have. Adrien would forever remain out of her reach. Chat slipped his hand into her empty one to reassure her. Instinctively, she clung to him tightly even if there was no battle for them to run from tonight.

She had made her decision hasn't she? Then again, she'd been alone in the knowledge. Chat had accepted her boundaries and gave her time on Sunday. Last night, he'd only sat there and listened to her rant. But despite all her turmoil, he was still none the wiser about an issue that involved him too. He deserved to know the truth. All of it. No matter how much it hurt.

"We need to talk.”

She felt his hand shudder only the slightest at the finality in her tone.

“Yeah, LB. We can talk. Whatever you need.”

She curled her fingers of her right hand back toward herself, away from the display, and tightened her grip on Chat’s hand to steady herself. She could do this. Turning, she only made a slight nod of her head to the roof nearby, a silent signal he knew the entire meaning of, but as she reached for her yo-yo, he lifted his hand to stop her.

“No, let me. You look like you could use a break.”

She blinked at him but allowed him to lead her anyway. Using the hand in his, he drew her closer until she stood directly in front of him. His left arm wrapped around her waist as his right reached for his staff.

“Whatever it is, we’ll get through this, my Lady. I promise.”

Unable to stop herself, she threw her arms around his neck, her forehead connecting with that silly bell, as she tucked her head up against his. His right arm threaded around her to hold her tight, chest to chest. His thumb tapped the paw print on his staff, and it elongated though he had planted it behind her. The pole tilted as they ascended into the sky so that Chat was moving backwards, not even seeing where he was going, while he supported her weight on him. She looked up in concern when she realized this, but his eyes were only on her. Before she could even voice her worry, he had landed gently on the opposite roof top.

“I was in this plaza for a while yesterday. I still had a feel for the distance.”

Oh. He meant earlier…when she as Marinette was looking at…how long had be been watching her from the roof before he dropped down to escort her home last night? She wobbled as his hold on her relaxed. He holstered his staff, and she simply stared at him. There was a reason they had come up here, but she couldn’t find it in herself to start.

“Are you…did you want to talk about Sunday?” Chat gently offered.

She sucked in a deep breath. Yes. Right. That’s what she wanted to do, but it was easier said than done, or said out loud. Or something. How did she begin something like _this?_

“Chat, I trust you with my life.”

That wasn’t what she wanted to say but that’s what came out when she looked at him.

“That trust goes both ways,” he replied.

“I know it does. I’ve always known it. And so, I really didn’t want to…but I had to because I had to do something…and I couldn’t…ugh.”

_Marinette,_ Tikki whispered from their connection. The superhero held up her hands and centered herself.

“Let me try again. I just…I know you don’t remember it, and maybe I should have talked to you about it before now, and it’s been bothering me lately, like a lot. I had a lot of long talks with my Kwami but even she can’t say for sure. Cause the nature of a human heart is not one that can be predicted. What do you remember about what happened a year ago? When we fought Dark Cupid?”

“Not much. No one really remembers what happens to them when they get akumatized. But what does that have to do with why you were upset on Sunday? Did someone in your family get akumatized?”

She looked up at his surprise that she was willing to talk about her civilian life this openly. She swallowed and looked away before continuing. 

“So this might be a longer explanation than I thought,” she explained as she began to pace.

His head followed her side to side, his tail swirling against the rooftop lazily.

“It’s okay. I’ve got time.” 

She couldn’t look at him while she spoke. She just opened her mouth and let the words flow as best she could.

“Last Valentine’s Day, you took an arrow for me, Chat, and I had to get you back. I couldn’t, I would never let them have you,” she told him fervently. “I needed yourhelp. There was only one way to to do that, to break through all the hate you were feeling, the only thing that conquers all is love, and there really was only one way to express that and ‘break the spell’ of Dark Cupid.” 

She stopped suddenly and looked him in the eye. She owed him this much.

“I kissed you.”

His head pulled back a little in surprise.

“And that’s what had you so upset?” Chat asked, trying to understand.

She held out her hands, looking for answers, for the right way to explain this. 

“You’re my best friend in all of this, the only other person who knows how stressful living with a mask can be. And I know I’ve always tried to keep it professional between us because this is a job and Paris is on the line and we have to take it seriously. I guess I’ve always been scared of letting you in too close and loosing you to…all of this. But the stress has gotten to me lately and I wonder if maybe you feel that stress too, and maybe I should just let you in a bit more because we are the only people who can really understand what we’re going through, because my trust in you is absolute, because you deserve to know that my kwami said the magic of the kiss only worked because it was _true love_.”

Chat blinked, his entire being frozen. She swallowed hard. He’d been doing so well to keep up with her oddity, to follow her as she walked around the roof and ranted out every little thing that came to mind, uncaring how Marinette like it was, and so very unlike the Ladybug image she strove to uphold in front of him. While she had decided that if he was her true love he could handle her less than heroic side, looking at him now, she realized she probably should have phrased it a bit more gently than that.

“But like,” she continued quickly, “my kwami said it’s because I trust you. And trust is the building block of love and that not every true love someone has in life has to be romantic. And even if our true love isn’t romantic, Chat, _I trust you with my life_. I trust you more than anyone else I’ve ever known and that scares me. Because we’re superheroes. We’re fighters. I can’t…I can’t loose you. You are the only one I can rely on completely. You are always there for me in every battle we’ve ever fought. You destroy, I create. We’re a team, two halves of a whole, and I can’t imagine my life without you. But this whole time…ah, Chat…I know I should trust in the magic, and maybe it’s right, but you saw me on Sunday. The realization that it even _was_ true love just sort of crashed on me Friday night and I’ve been really upset _not_ because it’s you, you are the best partner I could have ever asked for, I’ve just been broken up because there’s.…”

She turned away from him. He closed in on her, wrapped his arms around her, pulling her toward him, to try and comfort her, to wash away her fears as he had attempted to on Sunday. He was warm against her back, his forehead resting on the crown of hers. His breath stirred the small hairs on the back of her neck between her pig tails as he spoke.

“What is it?”

She bit her lip.

“It’s not really a what. It’s more of a ‘who’.”

He tensed.

“What do you mean a who?”

With a shaky breath and trembling lips, she confessed the last of what had been eating her up alive the past few days.

“Chat, I don’t want to hurt you or make things any more confusing than this situation already is, but you need to understand, I didn’t know you were my true love, I didn’t ask for that. My heart…I’m… I have a crush…on someone else.”

* * *

It cut deeper than any knife he'd ever known. He was burning alive with rage he had never felt before, and suddenly he was swaying on his feet. The revelation that not only was she his true love but she was in love with someone else overwhelmed him, caused him to stumble backwards from the one person he could not keep himself away from, his arms still reaching out for her all the same. And just as quickly as the fire had consumed his heart, just as soon as his hand began the faintest of trembling, just as a single word of destruction fought to escape his tongue just to find some sort of outlet for his rage, his well honed defenses against disappointment came to his rescue. 

He’d felt this so many times before, why should his love for Ladybug be any different? He shut down, his emotions and thoughts grinding to a halt, and he let himself fall into familiar emptiness. It was only after he retreated into himself that he realized how quite she was. He couldn’t bear to look her, but he did anyway. She had moved to the edge of the building, to give him space, to quell her own tears. He didn’t want to let himself think, but a single thought made it past his defenses anyway.

How would he feel if he'd found out his true love wasn't his crush, wasn't Ladybug?

Swallowing his pain, he moved to stand behind her so he could gaze over her shoulder and intothe night. But she wasn't looking at the city, her chin was far too down for that. No. Before, when he’d first found her, he’d only thought she'd been lost in thought and her eyes just happened to be looking at a perfume ad, but she was looking at the ad now. He'd been hollow only a moment before, but now, now it felt like someone had pulled out the crash cart and charged up the defibrillator.

"The guy you like...your crush...it's Adrian Agreste isn't it?"

He thought about what Nino had asked him earlier in class. About how the two of them had seemed shy and stuttering because they liked one another. Ladybug, who was usually stood so tall and proud, slumped.

"So what if is him?"

It felt like the first charge had hit his chest, but it wasn't enough to bring him back to life. Not yet.

"What is it about him that you like so much?"

He braced himself because he had heard it a thousand times before. Adrien Agreste had turned away so many fawning girls that only liked him because he was handsome or because he was famous or because he was rich or because he was well connected. He wouldn’t let himself hope that Ladybug liked him for more than that.

"What isn’t there to like about him?" she countered in a whisper.

Another jolt of electricity, and yet his heart remained still. She turned, popped herself up to sit the ledge of the building, but would not look him in the eye as she spoke.

"He isn't what I thought he'd be," she began softly. " I mean everyone knows his face, but not many people know who he is, but I've seen him, Chat. I see him all the time actually."

Another jolt. She lifted her face, her eyes were distant as she seemed to be recalling memories of Adrien in her mind. It was the calmest and most serene he’d ever seen her until he slipped off the ledge and walked toward him with purpose.

“What isn’t there to like about him?” she asked again, her voice more sure and steady. “He’s one of the kindest and nicest and skilled people I know. He knows how to fence and speak Chinese, and he’s sweet. And he tries so hard every day to just fit in and have friends and I think he must have been really lonely before he convinced his father to let him attend school. I know he hasn’t had the easiest of lives. I can’t imagine life without my mom, but somehow despite not having her in his life and all the stress of modeling and all the pressure to live up to every expectation his father has of him, he’s still so kind to everyone. Even people like me who aren’t really worthy of it.”

He had seen her without the mask.

He had been kind to her without her mask, and she remembered him for it. She thought she wasn’t worthy of him? Was this moment even real? It felt like the first heart beat, the pain of living again. She turned away from him to look back down at the display, missing as his mouth fell open and his claws began to clench and unclench repeatedly. He barely managed to hold his tongue knowing her well enough to know she wasn’t quiet done.

“But all that talking with yo-, ya-ah, uh…with my kwami… it’s made me think, that while I know _about_ him, I don’t _know_ him. I have a crush on him, sure, but that’s like…like putting him on pedestal and making him a piece of art in the Louvre. What’s his favorite scent? What does he watch when he gets bored? What if he leaves his socks all over his room or leaves the toothpaste uncapped? All this thinking about true love made me realize that loving someone is about seeing who they are, who they truly are, and loving them because of it. I think that’s, that’s what true love is.”

She turned to him, the city lights setting fire to the tears on her face.

“And I know who you are, Chat, or at least I know who you try so hard to be for the people of Paris. And for me. And I think whatever kind of love this is, it’s more real than this crush I have on Adrien, and, and it just made me really sad to realize that for as much as I say I like him, I don’t think he could ever know me back the way you do. Not with the secrets we have to keep. How, how could I ask him to fall in love with…with _me…_ when I could only ever show him one half of _me_?”

Her last sentence had been mangled by the fact her tears were flowing harder as she hiccuped. The heel of her right hand swiped at her eyes. Chat took her empty hand, and she held onto him like a raft in a storm. He swallowed trying to think, but he couldn’t. How could the ocean of his feelings begin to compare to the universe of hers? She…. _his_ lady…she felt…. but she was still crying, and that simply would not do. Not when he knew what he knew now. He needed to tell her...something...something truthful.

"For what it's worth, I don't think he'd mind. Not if it was you, my lady.”

At his words, her tears renewed themselves and she leaned her head on his shoulder. Awed and overwhelmed by everything she’d said, he wrapped his arms around her tightly. He couldn’t seem to process anything yet except her warmth pressed against his own. She sniffled and spoke again.

“You probably think this is silly, me realizing all this, realizing that if I am going to keep doing this job, I can’t have a silly crush and hope he might be my boyfriend. It wouldn’t be fair to him. He deserves more than a girlfriend that would run from his side the moment an akuma attack happened rather than stand _by_ his side, that would be making up excuses half the time to patrol, that might put him in danger if Hawkmoth figured out who I was. He deserves someone who can love him and be honest with him in everything, someone he could trust completely because she wouldn’t have to lie about her life to him. That’s why I’m giving up on my crush.”

He tightened his hold on her just a fraction more. She couldn’t give up on him, not now, not when they were so close. She only gave up because she wanted to protect him. He could talk her out of that. He had to. Everything he’d ever wanted in life depended on it.

“Ladybug, I think you’re too kind hearted for your own good. Your heart is allowed to want love.”

She slipped away from him then.

“I won’t risk his life for my happiness,” she countered.

He watched the distance between them grow. She huffed and sat on the ledge, pointedly ignoring him. His hand hung loose in front of him, empty without her.

“But what if his life is already at risk? Would you let yourself be happy then?” Chat barely whispered to himself.

A plan formed in his head. Now that he knew, there was no way he was going to let this go. Not when everything he wanted was within reach. He stepped closer to her.

“LB, you should…you should ask him out. Tomorrow. First thing."

She turned to him, her eyes wide.

"I'll make sure he won't say no.”

She glared at Chat.

"What are you going to do? Threaten to Cataclysm him until he agrees to date me?"

"Sure."

"You can't threaten to Cataclysm people until they date me!"

"The hell I can't," he replied low enough he thought only he could hear it.

She slipped off her perch, marched right up to him, her finger in his face. He unconsciously backed up at her approach.

"Now you listen here, Chat. You will not do a single thing to harm or threaten Adrien Agreste. If I find out you have even touched a single hair on his head, I will make your life miserable. Do you understand me?”

He held up both his paws to appease her. She’d always been beautiful angry, but angry at him on his behalf? His mouth floundered like a fish.

"Loud," he gulped. "Loud and clear, my lady."

"Good."

She backed down, her tension melting away a little, her tone softening.

"I appreciate you wanting me be happy, Chat, I do, but I’ve already made my choice. He and I are only ever going to be friends. All he wanted was to make a friend, and that’s what I intend to give him.”

_Then how will I ever find you, my lady?_ he lamented in his head. He forcibly choked back the whining mewl he almost let out. If she didn't approach him on her own, how would he ever find out who she was? He was so close to her, he knew it for certain now, but they couldn't reveal their identities. He respected her wishes too much to try and press for more. His pulse was weakening again. Something on his face must have shifted because she had a hand on his shoulder in an instant.

"Don't be sad. It's okay. He's such a great person. Being friends would be enough. Today was just...today was the first day, you know? Being around him was just...hard."

He knew he shouldn’t press, but the words escaped him anyway.

"You saw him today?"

"Yeah. I did. We didn't really talk much, but you, know your luck must be rubbing off on me for me give up on the guy only to have him give me his number.” 

He must have flatlined again because surely this must be heaven. His thoughts froze, unwilling to let himself hope, not until she told him herself, but the nickname he’d given _her_ quietly slipped out anyway, awe and hope and reverence all wrapped up in one neat little word.

"Princess?"

Her eyes were wide, and her body stiff. She shook her head and tried to move to ease the tension that had settled over her.

"Finally got tired of 'my lady'? You don't call me princess."

A joke. There was a smile on her face, but her whole body posture screamed something else.

"No. I've never called Ladybug 'princess'," he conceded. "There is only one person I call 'princess'."

"Who's that?" she asked nervously.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

She stood up straight and turned to him, her eyes caught. Her mouth fumbled to find words. He’d seen that reaction before. A million times before.

"Okay...so then why would you call _me_ ‘princess’? Are you branching out with the term?”

Chat looked into those distraught eyes, and he _knew_ them. He saw them every school day since he had first walked into class, during every battle since he acquired his ring. How could he have been so blind? She was right last night in her room to question his noticing her. He was _that_ stupid. How had he not _seen_ this, _seen_ her. Over a year he’d been pinning away like a love sick kitten, and she’d been _right behind him this whole time._ He closed the distance between them, his face hovering directly over hers, more certain of this than he had been about anything else in his life.

"No. I think you know exactly why I'm calling you 'princess', Princess."

* * *

She felt...she wasn't sure what this feeling was. Air. She couldn’t get enough air. This was akin to a panic attack, she knew, but even then, his eyes. His eyes held her steady in her spot. He _had_ seen her last night. He’d seen her so well. Well enough that he could see her tonight despite the mask. Everything she ever thought she knew about Chat Noir fled her. He wasn’t just the flirtatious, pun tossing dork she believed him to be. _He had seen right through her mask._ How was that even possible? Not even her parents had recognized her on the street today.

How could he be the one to see…?

“…true love,” she mumbled to herself.

_Marinette, it’s okay to let yourself be loved,_ Tikki encouraged her through their bond.

She took a few steps back, closed her eyes, and took a deep calming breath. Licking her lips she looked up into his eyes and spoke.

“I could deny it, but I will never lie to you. Not you. Not ever. I trust you, Chat Noir, with my life in every battle and, last night and tonight, with my feelings. I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t trust you with all me.”

His usually slitted pupils grew wide until his eyes were nearly black.

“Tikki?” Marinette asked softly.

He tilted his head.

“Spots off.”

Pink light bloomed across her face like cherry blossoms in spring. All too soon the warmth of magic faded away. The wintry winds of February whirled through her hair and cut through the clothing she had sewn herself as Marinette Dupain-Cheng stood maskless before Chat Noir. A blur of bright red swirled around in the air beside her.

“I’m so proud you, Marinette!” Tikki exclaimed.

The kwami dove to nuzzle against Marinette’s face. Marinette could only smile softly at Tikki and use her hands to brace the Kwami in a light hug.

“Thanks, Tikki,” Marinette replied, having remembered her manners.

The two shared a moment before realizing for the first time, they had a witness. Tikki settled in on Marinette’s shoulder to let the girl see the ends of her decision. Marinette readied herself, found Chat Noir's eyes, and waited for him to find his voice.

“It _is_ you,” he fumbled, his eyes bright with confirmation before running toward her to throw his arms around her waist and lift her from the ground, Tikki flying up out of the way. 

“It’s you!” he shouted as he spun her around, content to keep her in the air. 

“It’s you,” he breathed in disbelief, dorky grin still plastered all over his face, as he stilled to look up at her in wonder. 

Marinette gulped under his intense joy focused all on her.

“You’re not…you’re not disappointed?”

Her hands were a bit tight on his shoulders as she tried to maintain eye contact with him, his arms still tightly holding her aloft.

“How could I be disappointed it’s you?”

His joy burned bright, laughter on the tip of tongue.

“Cause…”

Marinette faltered. They were true loves of a sort right? She trusted him enough to drop her transformation. She could trust him with this.

“Cause…I’m not all that impressive. I’m just—”

Chat cut her off as realization lit up his features.

“Last night, you said Ladybug would be disappointed in you…but you are Ladybug? Why would you think that about yourself?”

Immediately, she tensed. She couldn’t face him, so he set her down on her feet. Gently cupping her jaw with his clawed hands, he tilted her face to look up into his.

“Marinette, don’t you know you’re the most amazing person on the face of this planet?”

Goosebumps overtook her at his confession. Her hands slid into place over his, her mouth agape.

“I can’t make you believe that, but, Marinette, _I_ believe it. I have always believed it. You are so talented with your creations, and you care about everyone. I’ve watched you give a hundred and ten percent to everything you ever do. Yeah, you stutter and stumble and get anxious about things, but you always keep going any way. Because you never give up. You never gave up on Paris. Or everyone at school. Or me. You hand out hope and encouragement and second chances that are worth their weight in gold. You shine so brightly that I don’t even need the sun in my life when there is you.” He paused a moment, and added with a large Cheshire grin, “And, if I’m being honest, I kind of find all the stuttering and stumbling adorable now that I get it.”

“Chat,” she whispered. “Why would you find that adorable? I mean...” 

Her throat constricted and her words failed her. A few small tears burned their way down the side of her face and onto their hands.

“You had me so worried last night about all that stuff about not really knowing the other side of your crush, and I couldn’t sleep because I was so worried that Ladybug was someone completely terrible to be around. Of all the people in the world behind that mask, I wouldn’t want any one else more than you.”

“How can you want someone who doesn’t even know who you are?” Marinette pressed.

He smirked and tilted his head to the side.

“Do you mean to tell me, that I, silly ally cat that I am, figured out who you were first?”

Marinette looked to the side.

“Maybe…”

“But putting things together is what you’re best at! You always figure out how you’re supposed to use your Lucky Charm or figure out how to put together pieces of fabric for a project. How do you _not_ know already?”

He dropped her face and began to laugh lightly as she stood there still dumbfounded. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A sense of familiarity raced down her spine. Her eyes were glued to his frame, and she mentally began to drop the ears, the mask, and all the black. What if Chat’s ring wasn’t black as well? Her earrings changed color, why shouldn’t his ring? And if his ring weren’t black, it would be…silver. Chat seemed to have collected himself and looked down at her in wonder. What would he look like if…Chat’s personality wasn’t a mask, but his other side was? If his other side was neat and proper and never a hair out of place. She thought of him brushing it out last night….

“You know exactly who I am, Marinette. Better than anyone else ever did. All of me. The daytime and the nighttime halves, the parts of me that were shy and unsure, and this part of me here that’s confident and destructive…and full of puns….”

She watched as the words she had spoken to him last night about her true love came back to him, as he realized she had been talking about him all along. She clasped her hands in front of her, smiled gently at him, and repeated the words she had already told him. It didn’t matter who was on the other side of that mask. It didn’t make what she had said last night any less true.

“Don’t forget kind and honest and sweet.”

“The only thing I had ever wanted in my life was to make a friend, and then luck gave me you.”

Marinette looked at Chat Noir and mentally removed his mask and, in her mind, there was only more green underneath, a green she had burned into her memory.

“I trust you with all of me, my Lady.”

The real rush of green light before her was momentarily blinding. It gave her enough time to slap her hands over her eyes, to keep her from finally seeing who Chat Noir was without his mask. She wasn’t ready for this moment, not by a long shot. How odd that she could be so certain when she had removed her own, but now that she was faced with an unmasked Chat Noir, she could not let herself see it.

“Ugh, finally,” a tiny little voice called. 

Marinette had never heard Chat’s kwami before. Tikki brushed past Marinette’s hair from wherever she’d been floating, just out of the way to give them some privacy. There was the sound of a bit of whispered arguing.

“Come _on_ , Plagg,” Tikki said sternly. “We’re gonna just leave these two to talk things out.”

Great, now even her kwami was abandoning her.

“And Marinette, just believe!” Tikki called after her, her tiny voice growing smaller.

Marinette heard Chat scuffing his shoe against the rooftop.

“Marinette? Are you…are you not going to open your eyes?”

Chat’s voice was so tentative and unsure. She wanted to ease that hesitation in his voice, but some part of her couldn’t find her courage. 

“I can’t.”

“Why not? Are you scared?”

“I’m not scared. Why would I be scared? You’re the cat. You’re the one who’s scared,” she babbled.

Warm fingers slipped around her wrists. She let him pull her hands aside but willfully kept her eyes shut.

“Do you _not_ want to know who I am?”

His voice, soft and sad, tugged at her heartstrings.

“As long as I keep my eyes closed, you are both Chat Noir and also _not_ Chat Noir. As long as I keep my eyes closed, you are both exactly who I think you are and _not_ who I think you are.”

Chat laughed lightly at that.

“That’s Schrödinger’s cat not Ladybug’s Chat, Marinette,” he teased. “Who do you think I am?”

Marinette wrung her hands, her eyes still shut, her chin lifted high.

“Someone I can’t put two sentences together in front of,” she confessed. “As long as I keep my eyes closed I won’t go stumbling around or act like an idiot or say the wrong things or have you laugh at me or literally stumble off the roof—”

“You’re cute when you blush, Mari.”

She couldn’t help it. She squeaked. Her hand slapped over her mouth before she could continue to embarrass herself more. His hands found hers once more, his thumbs gently soothing away the tension.

“Marinette, will you please open your eyes? I really want you look into mine with no masks between us.”

His sincerity and openness shot through her. How could she say no to that voice? Her eyes were still closed, but Chat asked her so nicely. Despite her fear and worries, she would look at him if only because he had asked so nice. The thought of him waiting a moment longer hurt her heart too much. She would be brave and believe. Taking a deep breath, Marinette lifted her lids.

The green eyes she had seared into her memory looked into her own. All this time, all the worries and the anxiety and the sleeplessness, and through it all, it had only ever been Adrien in front of her.

He grinned his large Chat smile at her and laughed. He laughed the way he had when he had given her his umbrella. And she fell in love with him all over again, her awe struck face had not escaped his notice nor her renewed blush.

“Marinette! My princess, my lady.” 

He pulled her in tightly, his enthusiasm finally melting away some of her shock. 

“Chat is my crush…”

She had spoken to herself in awe. All the days of being listless over her broken heart since she had talked to Tikki, all of it suddenly lifted and replaced with the one thing she had convinced herself unworthy of having for not being able to trust him with all of her. Her grin started small, but it grew and grew until it could almost take on a life of its own as she clung to him tighter, her arms almost aching from her grip.

“Tikki, you were right!” Marinette shouted.

“I’m always right!” Tikki replied immediately.

Plagg rolled his eyes as the two Kwami moved in closer now that Marinette had finally given in. 

“Magic _works,_ Adrien,” she whispered his name in awe. “Magic works.”

Adrien pulled back to consider her comment.

“I wanted my true love to be you so much…and it is literal magic that put you there. And…and…and you’re my, I’m your, and we’re, uh…”

He lifted his eye brow at that and stepped closer to her.

“You’re right. It is _true_ love. I’ve know it from the moment that you stood up to Hawkmoth and told the city that we would protect it. I didn’t know the crazy awesome girl under that mask was then, but I knew I loved you.”

He wrapped his arms around her to hold her close as they spoke.

“You fell in love with me in front of the tower when I was…?”

Her mind drifted back to the bridge, how she had admitted her failings to him then, that Paris wouldn’t have been overrun by Stoneheart if she weren’t such a mess up. How he had given her the right words even then.

“That was the moment you accepted who you were, that Ladybug could be a hero, that you knew you were capable the way I had known you were. Cause I saw it in the stadium the first time, how smart and quick you had been to solve the problem. And I loved seeing that confidence on you when you finally got it. Loved how sure you were. You’re beautiful and graceful and snarky when you set aside all your doubts and believe in yourself. ”

She beamed up at him from the cradle of his arms.

“Because you asked me to trust you. You gave me that last push of confidence to be Ladybug.”

His jaw dropped at her own confession. He tried to speak, but her hand slowly covered his mouth.

“It was raining,” she began softly.

He tilted his head and listened carefully.

“And you told me you had never been to school, had never had a friend. How you were so uncertain of yourself and shy, but you wanted to try and make me your friend. No one had ever spoken that openly to me before, just said exactly what they were feeling as clearly as that, so painfully honest. No one had ever seemed to want to be apart of my life so much that they were willing to make themselves uncomfortable just to do it. And I loved your honesty, but the moment you laughed I knew. I knew without a doubt that I would always be in love with sound of your happiness.”

Adrien’s mouth dropped open.

“It was the same day? We both, just one in the suit and one out of the suit…the same day!”

She nodded.

“The same day…” he repeated still shocked. 

His face went wide with the surprise of how close they had been to having gotten it right so long ago. She gently squeezed the arms under her hands, to keep him from falling too far into his memory. He came back to himself and gave her grin before nuzzling his forehead against her own. He drew back slightly. Marinette enjoyed being warm against him as she watched his face shifted through his emotions. She felt so light now that this was all out in the open between them. No more secrets lingered to weigh her down. And whatever happened from here on out, would happen side by side with someone she held in perfect trust. Suddenly shy, Adrien slid away a little. He coughed and then gathered himself.

“May I kiss you?” Adrien asked politely.

She considered him a moment. His face was so vulnerable and open. She could feel the little butterflies fluttering around in her stomach as they did when they were purified within her yo-yo at the thought of finally kissing Adrien after crushing on him all this time. But while this was Adrien, this was also Chat. And she was also Ladybug, and Ladybug never had a problem handling an alley cat. An eye brow raised as a smirk formed on her face. She knew this boy, both the daytime and nighttime halves, and while she would probably regret it later, for the moment, she gave him a gift only a cat like him would appreciate.

“I’ve got to confess, I have been awfully _curious_ about what that would be like.”

Her words wiped away any trace of fear that had lingered on his face. His smile returned in full force to burn away his doubts, the green of his eyes gave way to dilated pupils and heavy lids.

“Were you now?” he teased gently, his forehead bumping against hers. “Curiosity killed the cat, you know.”

He was loving this, her punning along with him. She was definitely going to regret it tomorrow, but for now, it was worth that smile on his face.

“You’re the expert on cats. Shouldn’t _you_ know by now that ‘satisfaction brought him back’? You wouldn’t leave me dead, now would you, kitty?”

One of his hands slipped onto her hip, the other to her jaw.

“No, my lady,” he murmured before closing the distance between them. “Never.”

Lighting striking the Eiffel Tower illuminated the sky as their lips met. He was soft and sure and gentle despite how nervous they both had been. Her hands slid up around his neck, slipping her fingers through the hair she’d spent part of last night playing with. She didn’t hold back her sigh at how soft it was. He pulled back from her then. After sharing a look they both smiled dorky little grins at one another before deciding as one to return to their lips to the others. She tugged at his bottom lip with her teeth, drunk on her dreams made real. He responded immediately, shifting to pull her closer, to use his hands on her hips to help draw her up to his height while her own gently tried to guide the kiss. Before they could do much more, lightning cracked around them once more. She jerked away with a slight shriek. 

“Whose the scaredy cat now?” he softly attempted to pun.

He failed on so many accounts considering how red his lips were as they attempted to chase after hers, his eyes were half closed, and his grin seemed far more love drunk than she’d ever seen it. This was the look of curiosity satisfied. He pulled her in once more. For a moment she debated shoving him away with a finger on his nose, but Tikki had said she needed to not be afraid to let herself be loved. As they managed to sneak a third kiss between them, the heavens opened up.

They pulled away from one another, both with their arms held out like penguin flippers, their hair suddenly and irrevocably melted to their skin from the sudden cold rain. Both of the kwamis instantly fled to the shelter of their respective chosen’s coat. Adrien and Marinette turned to each other as one with their similar expressions of confusion and annoyance. And then both promptly burst out laughing at the situation as a whole. After their giddiness subsided, mostly from the chilling rain rather than a need to stop laughing, Marinette shouted above the noise.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow in class?”

“Yeah, yeah you will.”

“And then after, did you want to come to the bakery again? So we can talk about this without being wet?”

“I’d like that a lot.”

“Tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow.”

With a smile, they both transformed back into their alter egos. Before Chat could leave, Ladybug gave him a peck on the cheek. His hand rose up to cover the space her lips had touched in awe, and she was certain that the redness on his face wasn’t just from the cold. 

“You’re cute when you blush, Chaton.”

He sputtered and failed to reply to her. She smiled a little at him before she tossed out her yo-yo and disappeared into the night.

Tomorrow morning they would _see_ each other, no more masks or secrets or reservations between them. Tomorrow, Marinette and Adrien would both have to fumble through trying to explain to their friends their new relationship. Tomorrow afternoon, they would have a chance to actually talk and settle on what exactly that relationship was as they ate macaroons. Tomorrow night, Chat would probably insist on patrolling together just to enjoy being on the rooftops. There were so many more tomorrows building in her mind as she swung on through Paris. Despite the rain pelting her face as she made her way home, all her tomorrows from now on would be filled with single beams of sunlight falling upon them while they kissed. Possibly even with angels singing in the background. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there you go, the final chapter. Tomorrow I'll post the epilog. You'll want to come back for it I promise!


	7. wednesday 15 february

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Tikki, the Kwami of Creation, began this fic, it's only appropriate that Plagg, the Kwami of Destruction, should end it.

Plagg had not expected Adrien to toss and turn all night long now that things had been revealed between his chosen and Tikki’s girl. Plagg had not expected the boy to roll out of bed more than an hour early to raid his closet for the seemingly perfect outfit. He had not been happy when a shirt had landed on him and startled him from his napping while Adrien prepared for the day. The kwami had certainly not been pleased to be taken out into the chilly morning sooner than usual for longer than usual as Adrien waited for his driver to leave the school so he could secret his way over to the bakery the girl called home. He certainly did not expect to be subjected to teenage hormones so early in the morning.

Almost immediately after the bell for the bakery rang over their head, the girl’s parents called her down to greet her partner. He heard her stumble down the stairs from his hiding place in Adrien’s pocket. Plagg hoped he would never have to funnel as much magic as Tikki probably did just to keep his charge upright.

“Adrien, what are you doing here?” the girl asked, breathless.

“It’s tomorrow, right? I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

Gag him. He’d take cheese over a girl any day.

“Are you hungry?” 

Plagg wondered if she knew she was on her way to having fed the boy three times in as many days. Not that the kwami minded. Adrien was growing. The boy needed to eat, but more than that, he needed someone to care that he was eating for his own sake rather than for his photogenic figure.

“Breakfast sounds wonderful.” 

“Stay…”

They both began to giggle a little at her command, before she began again.

“Stay here. I’ll see if can’t get you something, and then maybe we can walk to school together?”

“I’d love to.”

A few minutes later, the partners exited the bakery, the bell ringing in their wake. A moment after, the girl spoke again.

“Here’s some bread for you, and this is for your kwami.”

Plagg poked his head out of Adrien’s pocket at the mention of himself. The girl grinned brightly and held out a small offering of cheese.

“I didn’t know for sure, but I figured I always have to keep cookies for Tikki, so Chat Noir probably asked specifically for cheese the other night for you, right?”

Plagg floated over and sniffed at her offering. He had not expected her to be as attentive to him as she seemed to be of his chosen.

“Well, it’s no camembert, but it’ll do."

He strugged as he accepted the small wedge.

“Plagg, be nice,” Adrien chided.

Adrien crossed his arms and glared at the kwami. Plagg slowly bit into the cheese in defiance.

“I’ll try to remember for next time,” Marinette reassured the small cat god sincerely.

Plagg flew up a little to look at her properly for the first time since he had asked Adrien about his girlfriend well over a year ago. He swallowed before announcing his thoughts.

“Looks like Tikki got a good one after all.”

He had not expected the girl to blush at his observation. Mindful of his hold on his unfinished wedge of cheese, Plagg turned to his kitten then.

“Marinette gave me cheese, Adrien, and _she_ didn’t even complain about it. _She_ is even preparing for the _next_ time she gives me cheese. You are keeping her. I expect grand kittens within the next decade.”

He did not expect his charge to blush as well. 

Plagg, in true cat fashion, shrugged off their human weirdness before finally settling back into his usual pocket with _his_ true love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read this fic, left kudos, and/or commented. I did not expect to get such a reaction from my first fic in this fandom. Thanks LB fandom for making me feel welcome! 
> 
> I intend to write a few more stories for this fandom, but when I will get around to it is anyone's guess. Thank you all again for reading!
> 
> You are all Miraculous and simply the best! <3

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea happened to me, much like it happened to Marinette. I sat upright in bed just as I was trying to fall asleep, and was like “wait, in fairy tales it’s true love. What if….?” And I was like I can totally write this in the four days before V-day. 
> 
> And then it became this monster story and I am not really sure how any of this happened. Sorry it’s so late? 
> 
> Just know it's all finished, and the rest should be up before the week is out.
> 
> enjoy


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